Inkuba: Unlocking the full potential of French Speaking African youth Through Blockchain and Innovation

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Many business owners in Africa are not aware of the blockchain technology and I believe that if we engage some of them in a series of discussion, they will get to know the opportunity the blockchain presents and how it can be practicaly used in their line of business to make it more profitable and impactful.

The solution is to empower developpers with blockchain developmenet skills, so they can provide blockchain solutions to the existing needs of businesses in Africa in differents sector of activities( farming, education, trade, transportation…)

For instance, through this project, a farmer would be informed during a discussion session on how he could achieve more productivity through blockchain-based solutions that could potentially emerge.

The impact of this project will be demonstrated by:

The number of developpers and blockchain enthousiasts or experts that will enroll and actively participate in the training and brainstorming sessions.
The number of people participating in our discussion sessions from our targeted sectors
The number of innovative ideas that will come up as a result of all those activities.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

The proposed solution is to create an opportunity for talents meet, be mentored and guided into innovative thinking. As a result, ideas will emerge that could lead to business opportunities. The impact would be beneficial to the Cardano communisty in the sense that, all our findings will be documented and place at the disposal of the entire Cardano community, such that, any member of the community could use them to inform any sort of decision, should they want to embark on a business venture in Africa for instance.

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The five sectors we will be working with on this project are:

Education
Farming
Trade
Transport
Associations

Apart from the developpers training, we will also run 5 separate discussion panels at leat with 20 business owners and(or) leaders of associations from each of the afore-mentionned groups. The aim of these panels is to understand their challenges even as we give them an overview of what the blockchain is and what it can do for their businesses.

This project will lead to a massive adoption of the Cardano blockchain technology in the French West Africa, an increased number of active participants in the ecosystems, more innovative ideas submitted on ideascale funding rounds in a long run.

10 develpers will be trained on Plutus and Hakell and a total of 100 business owners will be introduced to the Cardano blockchain.

This project will run for 5 months and will consist mainly in:

Educational sessions: developpers and blockchain enthousiasts receiving deep kowledge of the Cardano blockchain, how it works, its opportunities, its impact so far in the world and Africa in particular(use cases), and its advantages over ther blockchains.
Capacity building training sessions for developpers on Blockchain development with Haskell and Plutus.
Discussion panels(5)between our creative community members and stakeholder from different sectors of activities to understand their need in orther to inform our brainstorming sessions.
Brainstorming sessions where solutions will be provided to the identified needs and these ideas could potentially turn into a businesses.
Most of the solutions will involved the creation of Dapps on the Cardano blockchain, and this is the reason why we would insist on empowering our developpers with Plutus and Haskell skills.

All our activities will be recoreded, and reports will be written and submitted to the Catalyst team.

All our findings will also be documented in the form of articles and published on our website.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

After successfully completing two projects in fund 8 of which one has been closed out the other yet to close out, I am best suited to continue this project. I have trained trainers who have already started taking up the tasks. So far I have mobilized a total of over 500 participants during our various workshops in Burkina Faso and Senegal cumulatively.

I am an entrepreneur with good strategic leadership skills and I know how to identify opportunities and go for them. This skill helped me to have 10 developers from our community initiated to the Haskell and Plutus development even though that was not part of the planned activities of the funded project. I am ready to go an extra mile to have the work done and have it done well.

Through my contribution to WADA Global and through my collaboration with other hubs namely the Ghana and Congo hubs as a translator/interpretor and other activities, I have acquired a lot experience in the Blockchain technology.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The solution is to introduce Cardano Blockchain-based solutions to business owners and associations in the French West Africa. The objectif is to:

introduce business owners to the blockchain as we listen to their needs and present them with some solutions.
Equip our hub with blockchain developers so they can easily begin to implement any solution we may find.
Advocate collaborative innovation in Africa because we believe it is the solution that could help the continent move forward, and Cardano is the best platform where all this can be possible.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

The project will run from October 2023 to February 2024

October

The team will hold weekly meetings to prepare the project
November: Enrolment of developpers and blockchains enthousiasts/experts into the progamme
first training session on the Blockchain technologyin general, the Cardano blockchain and how it works.
Exploration of projects deployed on the Cardano blockchain and their progress.
weekly online discussions with the group

November and first week of December

Haskel and Plutus Classes

Introducing all the participants with coding skills to a 5-week Plutus and Haskell programme.

2nd and third week of December and first, second and third week of January: weekly Discussion panels with 5 differents groups and the trained developpers as well as two blockchain experts.

1st discussion: with school owners(primary, secondary and tertiary institutions)

2nd discussion: with farmers

3nd discussion: with owners of transport companies

4th discussion: with traders(local, importers and exporters)

5th discussion: Associations

Last week of January-February

3 sessions of brainstorming with developpers and blockchain experts
During this session, reflexions will be made to provide solutions to the problems previously identified during discussions with a few stakeholders. Those solution will be documented and submitted to each group(farmers, school owners…) to give them a deeper understanding of how they could take advantage of the Cardano blockchain technology.
project wrap-up
Training on how to write and submit projects
Follow-up meetings

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

October: Enrolment and training

Communication to invite developers, blockchain experts and business owners in the five sectors of activities listed in this proposal

Enrol 10 developpers to the programme. The selection will be based on a test we will engage them in.

One training session in person will be organised to educate the developers on the Cardano blockchain

3 discussions online for follow-up

Budget:8660

November-December

by the en of the first week of December: Haskel and Plutus Classes

all 10 developers will be trained on Plutus and Haskell skills

Budget:11500

2nd and 3rd week of December, and last three weeks of January: Weekly Discussion panels with the 5 differents five this different groups listed bellow::

1st discussion: with school owners(primary, secondary and tertiary institutions)
2nd discussion: with farmers
3nd discussion: with owners of transport companies
4th discussion: with traders(local, importers and exporters)
5th discussion: Associations

Budget:16500

February

3 weekly sessions of brainstorming with the developpers and a few blockchain experts.

These sessions will be based on the outcomes of the 5 discussion panels. Solutions will be Blockchain solutions will be discussed and refined. At least 10 innovative ideas will come up.

Project wrap-up
2 Training sessions on how to write and submit projects
2 online Follow-up meetings

Budget: 15840

Total:52500

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

resource persons(Plutus Haskell trainer, blockchain experts, Inkuba team): 33000
venue hire for the discussion panels panel(5 panels): 8500
logistics and Communication(banner, invitation letters, photos, flyers…): 6000
refreshment for 150 people(30 people per session: total of 5 sessions): 5000
Total: 52500

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Dr. Malick Kone: Advisor/ Blockchain expert/Trainer

Dr. Malick Kone has been an active member of the Catalyst community since fund 6, a Found 9 CA and Voter. He is a mathematics professor and a Plutus and Haskell trainer. He participated in the Wada project titled Nurturing Roots in Africa by organizing workshops in Cote d’Ivoire, to educate people on the Cardano Blockchain and its opportunities for Africa. And during those workshops an overall number of 150 people joined the Catalyst Platform and opened wallets on Yoroi.

He is a beneficiary of the Plutus Pioneer Program and also has an advanced skill level with Haskell. I am currently planning a 5-week training on Plutus and Haskell with Dr. Malick for the benefit of developers in Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

He has also held a couple of workshops in Cote d’Ivoire to teach developers how to create and execute smart contracts.

Dr. Malick is from Cote d’Ivoire(West Africa). He is bilingual with a good mastery of French and English.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2yc7nhzXU>

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

resource persons(Plutus Haskell trainer, blockchain experts, Inkuba team): 33000 This amount will be broken down as follows:

Dr. Malik Kone will be in charge of theHaskell/Plutus training for 5 weeks: 10 000

We will need the participation for blockchain at leat 2 blockchain experts during our discussion panels: 5000

Three members of the hub(hub lead, administrative assistant and community manager) will be in charge of the rest of the activities and the implementation of the project from start to finish including training on the blockchain technology: 18 000

venue hire for the discussion panels panel(5 panels): 8500

a venue outside the hub will be more convenient to mobilised the participants.

logistics and Communication(banner, invitation letters, photos, flyers…): 6000

This is very important in the sense that we need to engage a good communication to ensure the success of each activity.

refreshment for 150 people(30 people per session: total of 5 sessions): 5000

During each discussion panel, we will expect at least 30 people including our developers and blockchain experts.

Total: 52500

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