[IMPACT]
DETAILED PLAN
FIRST STEP – ESTABLISH THE CENTER FOR COIN LIBERTY
The solution is to establish the Center for Coin Liberty with a think tank in Ghana for constant and continuous public engagement to shape legislation and provide innovative policy alternatives using Cardano’s peer-reviewed research and developed through evidence-based methods. The center once established would help to provide continuous engagement within the public policy space by educating the populists and shaping legislation.
To lobby, there is a need to build a reputable voice with huge influence within the mainstream public policy discussions in Ghana. To do this, we seek to establish a Center with an existing and reputable think tank or civil society organization to constantly contribute to policy discourse related to crypto regulations and provide innovative policy alternatives for adoption.
The Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI) is a secured partner that has welcomed and would give the center the mainstream public policy entry point and the opportunity to run the Center. The Center is dubbed Center for Coin Liberty and the partnership with ILAPI (existing think tank in Ghana) would be a great step to establish a lasting and reputable advocacy voice for cryptocurrency and projecting the vision of Cardano in Africa with Ghana as the starting point.
Cardano - Africa Goal; Ghana As A Gate Way
The idea for crypto adoption by various governments in Africa can actualize by leveraging on the political influence of Ghana within SubSahara Africa. Ghana is the first African country to gain independence and maintain such political influence to assist neighboring countries to gain independence. As mentioned in the words of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, ‘the independence of Ghana is meaningless until it is linked to the total liberation of Africa’. Ghana is judged by many as the gateway of Africa. Also, a stable democracy and a high level of freedom in Ghana, create the space for discussion of a wide range of activities and ideas, though some may not have legal backing, there is always the freedom to discuss, and build quality engagement for cryptocurrency in the future.
Therefore, establishing the Center for Coin Liberty with an existing Think Tank is a key way to building a strong mainstream presence within the public policy space in Ghana and beyond.
SECOND STEP – BUILDING CREDIBILITY FOR PUBLIC POLICY DISCOURSE
The establishment and running of the Center for Coin Liberty need to be built on credibility. With the low popularity of cryptocurrency and the quick-to-sanction approach adopted by most governments in Africa of which Ghana is not different, credibility is important to build influence for policy discourse. We seek to build credibility by running the center at Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI). We have an advanced partnership agreement that would allow us to operate as a center at ILAPI to add and build credibility and mainstream entry for public policy discourse. The leverage gained with ILAPI would be helpful for easy partnership and collaborations with other organizations and non-profits with a focus on reducing taxes and lobbying for legislation that promotes innovations.
Why the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI)
The Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI) is an award-winning policy Think Tank. ILAPI won the 2017 maiden Africa Think Tank Shark Tank in South Africa and for the second time got nominated for the 2019 Africa Think Tank Shark Tank in Kenya. ILAPI is a Non - Profit, non-partisan, public policy and educational research Organization (Think Tank), operating exclusively for Education, Social and Political, Private Sector Development and Business Policy Research, Free-market Economics Advocacy, Decentralization, and Local Governance, International Relations, Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, Poverty Alleviation and Entrepreneurship. It is the mission of ILAPI to provide innovative economic research and pensive multidisciplinary public policy advocacy through intellectually inspired leadership to help create freedom and prosperity for a free society.
Establishing the Center for Coin Liberty with a reputable think tank like ILAPI would provide credibility within the public policy sphere and an innovative and intellectual environment that welcome economic freedom and decentralization. This provides a suitable advantage from a background that is an existing and compelling force to parliamentarians, politicians, and policymakers.
ILAPI also has partnerships globally with reputable think tanks including Atlas Network, Fraser Institute, and American Institute for Economic Research.
FINAL STEP – THE POPULARISER MODEL
The Center seeks to achieve its goal of influencing legislation and promoting an environment that welcomes innovative, research-based advocacy and evidence-based method for policies discussions and alternatives for adoption. The populariser model is the approach that would help solve the problem by increasing broader participation and engagement in decision making. We understand that change takes time which is why the populariser model is suitable for building lasting change, especially in the areas of influencing legislation.
The center is going to be established using the populariser model to address any challenge and engage policies and legislation to help create an environment that promotes favorable legislation for crypto adoption.
The Populariser Model for Center for Coin Liberty
The center would operate using the populariser think tank model to shift the Overton window in favor of regulations that build an enabling environment for mass crypto adoption. The populariser model would best help to achieve our goal to delay unfavorable regulations and provide innovative policy alternatives through research-based advocacy and direct engagement of regulatory policy stakeholders that have the tendency of affecting the operability and adoption of cryptocurrency.
The populariser model would help provide the general public, mainstream media and engage stakeholders directly to build support and momentum for policy solutions for favorable legislation, reduce tax, and free-market environment that advances individuals' creativity and innovation.
The populariser model follows the understanding that the government is for the people, by the people, and for the people. Therefore, the model functions with the view that politicians are like ‘corks’ floating in a river. The cork moves in the direction of the river. Therefore, in the real world, the ‘river’ is the people and with the right research, education, stakeholder engagements, and understanding, politicians will follow the direction of the people in order to win the people’s votes to stay in office.
Therefore, the center for coin liberty seeks to use the populariser model to achieve its goal to provide constant and continuous mainstream engagement within the public policy space by shaping legislation and providing innovative policy alternatives for adoption.
______ FEASIBILITY _____
The Center for Coin Liberty has an outlook of creating a constant and continuous engagement in the mainstream public policy discourse. The Populariser model would be helpful to provide lasting change with constant and continuous research-based advocacy and evidence-based method of achieving objects within the regulatory framework and legislation. The purpose of the funding is to cover implementation costs for active campaigns, advocacy, and research that create engagement with stakeholders within statutory regulatory institutions, parliamentarians, and media. The fund would also cover venues cost for policy and media engagement. The proposal is set up on a volunteer basis and hopes to scale up our engagement once we confirm results. We may seek to include more research fellows in a proposal for future funding.
Our team has an experienced lawyer, peer-review researchers, think tank manager, and financial risk and compliance officer, with our understanding of Cardano’s evidence-based method and having participated in Cardano events in Ghana. The existing think tank with whom we have a partnership presents a great deal of resources that would be helpful to the sustainability of the Center for Coin Liberty.
The public policy space is full of the battle of ideas. Assessment of ideas that can shape favorable legislation is not difficult. However, interest from varying political viewpoints is a major challenge this project foresee. This challenge though difficult can be overcome with the right strategy, dedication, and belief in the populariser model to be used to achieve our desired goals. Below is a case study on how the populariser is helpful to achieve impact within the public policy space.
An Impact Primer in the Public Policy Space – The Case of E-Levy
In paragraph 315 of Ghana’s 2022 annual budget of the government, an Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) of 1.75% has been introduced. As part of sectors affected by the introduction of the E-Levy, mobile money was key. Mobile money is used mostly by the private informal sector in Ghana. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the private informal sector employs about 92% of the economically active population. The sector hugely relies on mobile money transactions due to the less documentation involved. Therefore, the E-levy will significantly affect the transaction cost of doing business in the private informal sector of Ghana.
Having published a series of articles educating the Ghanaian populace on the impact of the new tax (E-Levy) on the economy and how telecommunication companies can utilize Cardano blockchain using DApp to provide mobile money service in Ghana. Here are links to some of the publications;
Article Title - E-Levy Bill; Cardano Blockchain can Save Mobile Money Transaction Cost in Ghana
Article Title - Ghana’s E-Levy: No such thing as Government Money; there is only Taxpayers' Money
The public policy solution involving the Cardano blockchain gained momentum and got published by a major mainstream media, ModernGhana.com.
E-Levy Bill; Cardano Blockchain can Save Mobile Money Transaction Cost in Ghana (modernghana.com)
The impact of our advocacy on E-Levy contributed to the unpopularity of the current government on E-Levy. The government for the first time in Ghana proposed a broad consultation by commencing a series of town-hall meetings with the citizenry prior to the passage of the tax bill. The government later conceded to reduce the rate of the E-Levy from 1.75% to 1.50%. (See; https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/E-levy-reduced-from-1-75-to-1-5-Afenyo-Markin-1414120). At the time of submitting this proposal the E-Levy bill had not been passed by parliament. Therefore, the populariser model helped delay the passage of E-Levy in parliament, which goes contrary to the projection for its approval and implementation by 1st February 2022 as stated in the Ghana 2022 budget. (https://mofep.gov.gh/sites/default/files/news/2022-Budget-Statement.pdf)
We seek support from the catalyst community to help establish a strong center to continuously engage in mainstream public policy discussion and provide innovative policy alternatives that promote innovation and favorable regulations for adoption in Ghana.
[FEASIBILITY]
The activities of the Center for Coin Liberty would focus on streamlining the following using agile implementation for the first year;
· Policy Papers and Policy Brief
· Articles and Op-Eds
· Stakeholder Engagements
· Press Release and Media Engagement
· Educational Outreach
Our strategic timeline would focus on
Establishment of the Center (1-3 months)
Center Inaugural Event
Create Public Policy Discussion Awareness for the Center
Marketing and Communication (MarCom) Strategy.
Research (4-9 months)
Publish Policy Papers and Policy Briefs
Articles and Op-Eds
Educational Outreach
Implement MarCom Strategy
Stakeholders Engagement (9-12 months)
Initiate Open Forum with Media, Policy Makers, and Regulatory Institutions
Press Release and Media Engagement
Partnership and Collaborations
Budget ($)
Establishment and Inauguration of Center for Coin Liberty – 4,700
Research – 12,200
Media and Stakeholder Engagement – 8,300
Educational Outreach & Partnership – 6,540
Marketing and Communication – 5,510
Team Fees – 2,750
Total – $40,000
- NATHANIEL DWAMENA
A researcher with years of experience in think tank development and non-profit management. He was part of the team contracted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Ghana) to conduct a study on red tapes for doing business in Ghana. He has a background in project management, think thank Management, and is a graduate of Atlas Leadership Academy, USA. He has founded several non-profit organizations including Young Africans for Opportunities and Africa Human Right Forum. He successfully completed think tank training in Nigeria and project management training in Kenya which aided in his successful graduation from the Atlas Leadership Academy, Atlas Network (USA). He has written several Op-Eds that have contributed to public policy debate and engaged with credible media houses in Ghana. He is also a member of WADA Ghana and a speaker at blockchain events in Ghana. He is also an active catalyst member, fund 7 community advisor, and co-proposal.
LinkedIn Profile - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-dwamena-02578a127/>
2. CLAUDIO MUTUA Esq.
He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has an interest in the intersection between the law and Information Technology (IT) especially as regards the internet, privacy, and the law, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, entertainment, and Intellectual Property on the internet.
He also has an interest in the intersection between free markets and the law, and in this capacity, he serves as the legal advisor and an associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), a free-market think tank based in Tema, Ghana.
Further, he is a trial attorney in matters of privacy, commercial and civil as well as criminal and constitutional litigation.
LinkedIn Profile - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmutua/?originalSubdomain=ke>
3. INNOCENT NORVINU
He is a cryptocurrency enthusiast with Bsc (Hon) in Banking and Finance from the University of Professional Studies. His years of experience within the finance industry as a risk and compliance officer has been key in ensuring that Unique Step microfinance survived financial sanctions emanating from lack of regulatory compliance and also helping them survive various financial clean-up exercises in Ghana.
LinkedIn Profile - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/innocent-norvinu-a096931a9>
[AUDITABILITY]
Key Performances Indicators
• Number of Regulatory Modifications and Advocacy Campaigns
• Number of Policy Papers and Brief Adopted/Implemented
• Number of Media Share and Reach
• Number of Partner Organization
• Number of Impact Reports
Sustainability
The Center for Coin Liberty would rely on its quarterly fundraising strategic plan to enable constant and continuous engagement within the public policy space in Ghana as well as support from the catalysts community. We seek to also leverage donor partners of ILAPI both locally and abroad. The Center for Coin Liberty is open to strategic partnerships that support the goal and mission of the center.
Auditability_
Our team believes that openness and transparency are key to building a strong force for advocacy within the public policy space in Ghana and beyond. Therefore, we would make our activities open, and recording of stakeholder and educational outreach available to enable tracking. We have created a channel for the Center on Discord (https://discord.gg/Mt9Xd3qb) and would publish our activities on the institute’s (ILAPI) website (ww.ilapi.org) to constantly update community members on activities. The center shall make available impact reports on specific advocacy campaigns that are undertaken and annual reports.
We define success as our ability to build a strong advocacy center that is able to mobilize public support and influence policies and legislations for adoption.
This is an entirely new proposal to establish the Center for Coin Liberty with an existing think tank in Ghana.