Binance Deepens Crypto Adoption in Africa, Sponsors 2021 Africa Cup of Nations

Binance the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform has further deepened its nest into the African community by becoming an official sponsor of the continent’s biggest football competition, the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

Binance made this announcement on the company’s official website on Monday. This sponsorship deal makes Binance the exclusive cryptocurrency and blockchain platform for the 2021 AFCON tournament.

The company said, “this sponsorship deal will make Binance the exclusive cryptocurrency and blockchain platform for the AFCON 2021 tournaments as we take our global brand and technology to African football.”

The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations tournament starts the sports calendar of the year for Africa. The 2021 AFCON tournament commenced on the 9th of January to end 6th of February 2022. The host country, Cameroon led the first match of the game and also won against their counterpart Burkina Faso at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Speaking on Binance sponsorship, Veron Mosengo-Omba, CAF’s General Secretary said, “I am delighted to welcome Binance as an official sponsor of the AFCON tournament this year. Through this partnership with CAF, Binance will connect further with its users and the African community through football. CAF is ready to embrace blockchain-based technology and its impact on the future of African football development. I am certain that together with Binance, we can take African football to a new level.”

Emmanuel Babalola, Binance Director for Africa said; “Football is the most popular sport in Africa, one that unites the entire continent and as the leading blockchain ecosystem, we are proud to be an official sponsor of the AFCON tournament. This corroborates our mission to take crypto mainstream across the continent.”

Binance explained that its mission as a company is “to drive blockchain adoption and enable greater access to financial services for the world’s unbanked”. The company also affirmed that it has provided free crypto education classes to over 541,000 Africans since 2020.

Yi He, co-founder, and CMO of Binance said; “With a population of 1.2 billion Africans and the prevalence of blockchain technology & its use cases, we believe the African continent could lead the future of the blockchain industry. We will continue to put in our efforts in pushing the mainstream adoption of crypto so that more people can understand crypto, and understand Binance.”

Binance announced that the company “will also be the official partner of the Assist of the Day / Binance Assist of the Week / Binance Assist of the Tournament, which will be promoted across CAF’s social media channels and across all six venues in five cities in Cameroon.”

Last week, the fintech Unicorn Flutterwave announced its partnership with Afrospot TV to sponsor AFCON 2021 on Free-to-air TVs across Africa, to ensure that millions of Africans have unrestricted access to watch the tournament.