In Africa, foreign exchange transactions, which are key to the operation of businesses, are slow, tedious, and expensive. Traditionally, business owners would visit banking halls teeming with long queues, mired in bureaucracy, and weighed down by numerous limitations, but times are changing.

Baki, an exchange product developed by DeFI company Canza Finance, allows them to perform slippage-free swaps at official central bank rates, retaining value and reducing transaction costs.

Baki is primarily used for trading, allowing users to hedge on supported currencies and withdraw their profits if their predictions are correct. As a DeFi native platform, users get cashback when they mint and hold zTokens. Baki provides an implicit short on African currencies. As African currencies devalue the minter's debt will reduce, increasing the minter's collateralization ratio and allowing for additional zUSD to be minted. de. For every swap made, users pay a 0.8% transaction fee, which is then distributed evenly between users and Baki’s treasury. With the upcoming addition of the transfer feature and the on-ramp and off-ramp of cryptocurrencies, users will be able to send money to others using Baki, who can receive it in fiat currency.

We put together this step-by-step guide to help users navigate the Baki platform efficiently and understand key features and processes.

To get started, navigate to the official Canza finance website at Canza.io. Once you're on the homepage, locate and click on the prominently displayed "Start Now" button specifically intended for accessing the Baki Exchange platform.

(Image Source: Canza Finance)

A step-by-step guide to using the Baki platform:

Step 1. Connect Your Wallet

Connect your wallet to Baki by choosing from over 380 external wallet options such as Metamask, Coinbase, Bitget Wallet, and WalletConnect.

Step 2. Deposit Collateral

Deposit USD Coin (USDC) into your Baki account. Ensure transaction approval and be mindful of the limitation on minting based on collateral ratio. Learn about liquidation risks and how Baki's decentralized mechanism differs from traditional exchanges.

Step 3. Mint Token

To transact on Baki, you have to convert a portion of your deposited USDC to zUSD, a native token of Baki also pegged to one USD. zUSD allows you to swap and trade. Minting, the process of generating tokens, creates debts on the exchange that are supported by your collateral—your deposited funds. Bear in mind that you can only mint a maximum of 66% of your deposits. To engage in transactions, it is essential to possess adequate collateral. Specifically, a collateral value of 150% is required for every mint transaction you conduct. The reason for that is, that Baki, provides over-collateralized loans—the value of the collateral is greater than the loan’s (mint) value by at least 50%.

Step 4. Swap Currencies

Baki allows you to swap supported currencies including USD, NGN, CFA franc, and ZAR. In the coming months, it will introduce additional European currencies such as GBP, EUR, and JPY. Users can swap supported currencies.

Step 5. Withdrawal Process

Withdraw funds from Baki by converting to zUSD or utilizing a third-party middleman, like Curve, for fiat currency conversion. Baki is set to launch a third option, enabling direct peer-to-peer transfers, where you can send your tokens to a middleman who will facilitate the exchange for fiat currency.

Whether you seek to hedge against inflation, earn cash-back rewards for trading, or take advantage of forthcoming peer-to-peer transfer features, Baki's trading platform provides an excellent starting point. Begin exploring now to access the optimal foreign exchange rates tailored to your business requirements here