At the turn of the decade, money sent by African living and working in the Diaspora to their family and friends surpassed that sent by developed nations as aid to less developed ones across the continent. But even with this huge milestone, the high cost of remitting cash back home by Africans in the Diaspora has remain prohibitively high and eaten into the benefits of making transfers.

Leading money transfer operators like Western Union and Money Gram have stifled innovation in the payments industry – and imposed high costs on consumers – but change is coming from a very unlikely source. Bitcoins.

Some tech entrepreneurs have found a way to send small amounts of money from the U.S. at a very low cost by changing it into Bitcoin before sending and transferring the virtual money to whoever they want in Africa. The Recipient will then convert the Bitcoins he/she receives into their local currency at an agent such as BitPesa in Nairobi, Kenya.

But not so fast. Lack of Bitcoin agents to convert them to hard cash in most African countries, such as Uganda is putting brakes on the seemingly seamless innovation.