DURBAN - Elisha Owusu Akyaw, a 16 year old high school student is making money because of bitcoin.
Akyaw is the Chief Executive Officer of Token Media, a cryptocurrency marketing firm that he created last year.
The firm was set up to help blockchain projects with their target audience. The business is small, but he has worked with local financial firms to develop their projects.
His business according to Bitcoinafrica.io has assisted in raising over $40 million in token sales through its marketing services.
Akyaw was interested in technology at the age of 12 after he got a mobile device that could connect to the internet.
By exploring the internet he was able to develop a website by himself.
One of the first creations was a commercial blog for Firefox OS, Mozilla's mobile operating system (firefoxcentral.com).
When the project ended Akyaw had to move into other areas of the internet which is when he discovered cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and bitcoin.
"I got into the tech space sometime in 2013. I had my second phone after using a Nokia 3310 so I got access to the internet and began to explore what mobile phones, operating systems and websites were all about and in 2014 I learned how to create websites on my own through YouTube".
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Africa is currently experiencing bitcoin fever. A report by Citibank ranked Kenya as the fifth highest holder per capita in the world.
In third place was Nigeria and South Africa was in sixth place.
The increasing interest in bitcoin has been affected significantly by the high unemployment rate in Africa.
For Akyaw, it seems that combining his education and entrepreneurship is just a piece of the hurdles he faces as an entrepreneur.
At the moment, Akyaw is putting together a blockchain event with a big focus on cryptocurrency to bring about discussions on regulations and the future of cryptocurrency in Africa.
"The future of cryptocurrencies in Africa is bright as it has moved from just being currencies into various useful platforms that will be essential to the African continent. I’m currently working on putting together an event on cryptocurrencies with a particular focus on regulations, the future of cryptocurrencies and how they can help Africa".
Ghana is slowly catching up with the bitcoin fever as the country hosted their first blockchain conference last year November.