Facebook has stated its plans for Libra As The world’s largest social media platform is taking on a giant-sized project. a digital currency backed by a reserve of real currencies and assets, which it hopes will grow to become globally accepted and adopted.

Put another way, Facebook wants to create a global financial network based on a digital currency it’s about to unveil.

The currency, due to be launched in the first half of next year, already has signed up partnerships ranging from, Uber, Spotify and Mastercard to Naspers—Africa’s most valuable company.

Facebook hopes that 100 partners will have joined before the currency launches, strengthening both its credibility and reach.

According to quartz africa - The big-picture goal, Facebook says, is to “empower” unbanked people across the world by providing access to the global financial system. That’s an ambitious target given the sheer size of that population at an estimated 1.7 billion people—a bulk of which are in Africa. But then again, Facebook has 2 billion users across its network of apps and its fastest-growing regions include Africa and Asia.

Disrupting remittances

While it’s unclear how adoption of Libra for everyday use in trade and payments will go, there’s an obvious opportunity for an immediate impact in Africa: remittances.

Significant African diaspora populations across Europe and North America who regularly send money back home to relatives and friends represent a major source of remittance flows to the continent.

Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa grew to $37 billion in 2017 and are projected to reach nearly $40 billion this year, according to the World Bank. Given that those figures only track funds sent through formal channels and exclude remittances to North African countries, the total for the entire continent is likely much higher.

Here’s how Facebook puts it: “Success will mean that a person working abroad has a fast and simple way to send money to family back home.”

In the company’s best-case scenario, Libra will serve as a more effective cross-border money transfer service based on the promise of speed, lower costs and increased convenience for both senders and receivers. Read more below here...