How AfriBit Kibera is Building a Bitcoin Circular Economy From the Ground Up in Kenya
In Kibera, Ronnie Mdawida and AfriBit Kibera are testing whether Bitcoin can help a community retain more of the value it creates.
In Kibera, one of Nairobi’s most densely populated informal settlements, financial exclusion is not an abstract policy problem. It appears in limited access to formal banking, the cost of moving small amounts of money, unreliable internet access, limited smartphone access and the difficulty of turning irregular income into lasting savings.
AfriBit Kibera approached these challenges from the ground up. Rather than starting with a Bitcoin wallet and asking people to use it, the project began with existing community needs: waste collection, youth programmes, small businesses, savings and local commerce. Bitcoin became the monetary infrastructure connecting those activities.
For Ronnie Mdawida, the central question has never been simply how to get more people to use Bitcoin. It is how to help people retain more of the value they create.
The Founder’s Journey
Ronnie Mdawida discovered Bitcoin in 2019 through grassroots community work. What began as an introduction to Bitcoin as a way to transfer value without traditional intermediaries gradually changed his understanding of it. Through further education, he began seeing Bitcoin not simply as an asset, but as financial infrastructure that could work in communities underserved by conventional systems.
That perspective led to the creation and development of AfriBit Kibera. Rather than starting with Bitcoin and looking for a use case, Ronnie and his team started with problems already facing the community: waste management, youth opportunities, local commerce and savings.
By early 2022, the project was developing a model around waste management, upcycling, microtasks and developer activity. The principle was simple: build something useful first, then use Bitcoin where it provides an advantage.
“Build something useful enough that even someone who does not care about Bitcoin would still value it.”
Core Insights & Infrastructure
AfriBit Kibera‘s experience shows that building a Bitcoin circular economy requires more than payment technology. Lightning helps reduce the friction of small payments, but reliable infrastructure also depends on connectivity, devices, education and trust.
The project found that simply giving people Bitcoin was not enough. Some participants quickly lost their sats to people with greater knowledge. In response, AfriBit Kibera introduced incentivized learning, making Bitcoin education part of participation.
Participants progressed from basic Bitcoin education to self-custody, group custody and multisignature wallets. Some went on to learn through programmes and communities including Trezor Academy, My First Bitcoin-style education, BitDevs, Bitcoin Dada and African Bitcoiners. Some are now becoming educators themselves.
The project’s impact can also be seen in what participants have done with their earnings. Ronnie highlights examples of community members using accumulated Bitcoin to contribute toward building homes and start businesses.
These outcomes point to a more meaningful measure of adoption: not simply how many people receive Bitcoin, but what they are able to do with it.
Future Outlook
AfriBit Kibera‘s next phase is focused on strengthening the economic and educational infrastructure around the community economy.
That means creating more productive opportunities, supporting stronger local businesses, developing more community educators, improving understanding of custody and building technology that works despite connectivity and device limitations.
The challenge is scale. Growing the project cannot simply mean adding more wallets or users. It has to mean creating more useful economic relationships between participants, merchants, businesses and educators.
The next three to five years could therefore be important for deepening the existing circular economy and increasing the community’s ability to earn, save, spend and build with Bitcoin.
The core principle remains unchanged: Bitcoin should not be the reason to build. Useful economic activity should come first, with Bitcoin serving as the infrastructure that helps that activity work better.
In Kibera, that experiment is already underway.