[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Background

This proposal came about through observation during the first semester of school in March 2022 when I wanted to do a project on Cardano and its impact on tertiary education students. When I started to deliberate and talk to my colleagues, almost all the ladies interviewed said they have never heard of Cardano or any other cryptocurrency. Most of them did say they know of Bitcoin and nothing more. Through this, I saw the great disconnect between what women know against what men know because most of the men I interviewed gave me great insights into blockchain and what they use it for, but just 5% of the women could give me good answers. It was at that moment an idea came to my mind to start educating women on the campus about blockchain, especially Cardano because I was part of Cardano and knew a great deal of what Cardano does in Africa. Through these interactions several people especially the women showed genuine interest in the topics and whenever there is a program related to Cardano we do go together as a group or as individuals, when we returned back to campus we hold discussions on what we have learned and discuss how best we can use it to help ourselves. I am happy to say that through this venture most of the women have been able to become PAs and vCAs and some became developers through the ecosystem.

Furthermore, from this point interest in the group grew because outsiders got to know that the women were making good money from helping the ecosystem by assessing proposals and doing other great things in the ecosystem but we kind of found it hard to organize meetings and carry out sensitization about the Cardano because with population growth brought about its own problems and it became very difficult to find spaces within the campus where we can meet as a group to ideate, share and discuss the new challenges which have been launched by the Cardano community or even find places where resource person's can come to campus and train us on more things the Cardano ecosystem have developed or is doing. This problem has led to retardation of our works and makes it difficult for members to congregate successfully at one place at a time.

As fund 9 has been launched we, therefore, see it necessary to apply for some funding in order to establish a women-centered hub at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. This is because when one comes to school especially the women and they see themselves as belonging to such a hub they will do everything necessary for the hub to achieve the mandate to which it was established. The primary source of attachment they will see and the commitment to be part of something large is inextricable and endearing. Added to the opportunity to be trained as trainers, developers, and entrepreneurs which are the three main core opportunities the hub will provide to these women will lead them on to unimaginable success in the Cardano ecosystem.

This hub seeks to offer them the opportunity to learn meaningful and informational activities especially technology which will lead to them gaining experiences, and skills to become developers, entrepreneurs, and trainers in blockchain technology. In Africa, a lot of women lack the knowledge, and skills to partake in the blockchain world. Taking into account the population of the Africa Continent one can see that women form the majority and these women because they lack this knowledge in the blockchain industry have led to the poor visibility of Cardono Africa's growth.

Therefore, "the proposal" Cardono Ladies Hub will offer them the necessary knowledge and training to be part of the ever-growing ecosystem.

We believe that by offering them the three tenants of training we shall have the following numbers graduating from each cohort :

a) Developers (have at least 5 developers coming out of the hub in less than three months of consistent training )

b)Entrepreneurs ( have at least 10 entrepreneurs graduating from the hub in less than three months of entrepreneurial training )

c)Trainers (have at least not less than 15 trainers in core topics graduating from the hub in less than three months of intensive training in the blockchain ecosystem )

In total, we shall have a contribution rate of 30 people who will graduate and add their expertise to the Cardano ecosystem.

The proposers of this project believe that this is the way to lead the growth of high skilled-based women in Cardano Africa, which is urgently needed for growth. The main impact of this proposal is getting women on board with the Cardano ecosystem from the University of Cape Coast and growing the hub subsequently to all tertiary institutions in the country under a single umbrella to learn about blockchain, Cardano, and explore other avenues under the ecosystem as something which they are part of and own to become, developers, programmers, entrepreneurs amongst other.

The reason for this approach is to increase the number of women in Cardano at the same time remove the misconceptions about blockchain technology, and cryptocurrency among others. To ensure that women patronize the" Cardano Ladies Hub" and participate in all activities of the hub. A reward system will be instituted to push more people into Cardano. Also, through this, we will have more women in Africa developing interest and therefore ensuring it is sustainable to meet challenges of the continent with regards to Cardano and Blockchain.

The main beneficiaries of this proposal are mainly women at the University of Cape Coast. Through these women, more people from their various communities such as their families, and friends, among others will intend also learn about Cardono from them which will increase the number of people who will use Cardono exponentially in the long run.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Amongst all the continents in the world, Africa is said to be the continent where there is low patronage of Cardano and Blockchain technology. The proposers of this proposal seek to address this challenge by increasing the feasibility of the ecosystem in Africa through women and we believe that if women are well educated and adequately trained in the blockchain ecosystem they can contribute enormously and add more value to the growth of Cardano and Africa at large.

To succeed in this field we need women who can grasp the essence of the project to grow it and own it as their own which necessitated the use of women at the University of Cape Coast. This is necessary because they have a higher level of intellect and can learn these things easily at a go. When the women have been empowered, the likelihood of empowering their families and their community is high. That is if these women become developers, entrepreneurs, and trainers there is a percentage that they will teach, employ, and develop technology in the blockchain industry that will put it ahead. Africa is the new unchartered territory where Cardono can make its mark, thus if Cardano grows we all grow with it as a community.

Therefore, during the training scheme, every woman will be given training on pertinent issues affecting the African landscape to understand it better and bring out solutions to why most Africans find it hard to adopt Cardano into their daily lives, open Yoroi wallet, and get signed on into the idea scale will be a mandatory field which will be done across the board.

The Grow Africa Grow Cardano challenge needs visionary leaders who can think on their feet and serve the needs of the continent in the long run. We cannot stay ideal and watch as most of our women are not educated in this priceless field and we need to scale up our efforts by training as many women as possible to up the challenge and help change the narrative.

Also, for instance, assuming at the end of the project we have more than 30 people who amongst some become so good at coding to develop apps, trainers, and entrepreneurs we are definitely adding so many quality human resources to beating the Africa challenge and shaping the continent on the path to success.

And, there are more than 100 public and private tertiary institutions in the country, and assuming we are able to set up Cardano-centered women hubs in almost all the major universities in the country let us imagine the talent pool we will be drawing from these schools, if for example, we have a range of just 20 from each school, that means that we have a total pool of not less than 200 plus dedicated and well-trained women coming into the Cardano ecosystem every three months, with Yoroi wallet and registration on idea scale. And these talent pools will go on to help push the Grow Africa Grow Cardano which will be a win-win situation for us all. This is the vision of the Cardano Lady's Hub, which I sincerely ask to be pushed for Africa made by Africans for Africa.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The main risks that might affect this project are the traditional misconceptions of blockchain, bureaucracy, and legal issues. This is because most of the school's authorities already have predetermined ideas about blockchain and are vehemently against its training and education in all levels of school work and the project will mainly be using students from the University of Cape Coast. This means we have to first and foremost educate the authorities and remove any kind of misconceptions from their mind to gain their trust and loyalty and also ask the management of the University for permission to use their students and explain to them the reason why we are using the students, how the project will benefit the students and the University at large, and go through the legal rudiments of setting up such a hub in the school.

Therefore, these are the main risks that will affect the project and how we will deal with each risk involved in executing the project, research has taught us that we can successfully mitigate against all these risks if we put in place measures that will remove them against the school not allowing us to operate.

• Firstly, the space we will use for the hub will be outside the school but nearer to the campus to reduce transport costs for our members who will be coming for training and meetings at the hub therefore, the hub does not fall under the direct supervision and jurisdiction of the school and it will not affect our members from coming to the hub willingly.
• Secondly, to ensure we have the support of the University authorities we will carry out adequate consultation before we start operation with all stakeholders in the University of Cape Coast right from the department lecturers to the Vice-Chancellor of the school to ensure we all understand each other. This will allow us to gain a written consent document from the school authorities and express permission to operate as a hub in order to engage the students of the school. Also, the government of Ghana, the Ghana Education Service, and the Ministry of Education will all be consulted before we operate. And the agencies necessary for giving licenses to operate as a hub will also be consulted so that we acquire all the licenses and do the necessary paperwork to ensure we are on the same standing with all these institutions and agencies before we start operation.

We might also need to maneuver and find solutions to problems associated with the implementation of this project at the University of Cape Coast due to the strict internal mechanisms of teaching, and learning and also their timetable for academic work in order not to overburden and burnout our women in search of achieving our objective over forgetting the reason why they are at the university. As far as we want excellence in what we train them on, failure on the part of their university work will get them expelled from school which we do not want. To solve these issues we will work with every department where our members study to ensure we have at least some of their lecturers as part of our trainers for most of our work so that they can point us to places where we can integrate into our training to suit areas of their academic work. Most importantly, we will be scouting for lecturers who have in-depth knowledge in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrency. In that regard, they can direct us on how best we can serve the needs of our members on both frontiers.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

<u>Detailed Plan</u>

The expected three months delivery period will be as follows:

August 14th - 18th- These Will be the days that the team will use for consultation with the University of Cape Coast authorities, to ensure there is an understanding of where we both come from and how we can collaborate and achieve success by working as one.

Expected outcome: To be given permission to operate as a hub with the women of the school.

The topic of discussion is:

• Educate each other about the importance of blockchain, the Cardano ecosystem, and the benefits of the training for the women
• Discuss all legal issues and implications associated with the hub operation

August 20th - 24th - Will be used for scouting for appropriate space to rent for the hub, ideally a space that is very close to the University of Cape Coast that can accommodate about 50 students at a go and can serve the needs of the hub outside and close to the main campus.

August 25th - 28th - Will be used for setting up the space with furniture, tables, electronic gadgets, and any other equipment or tools that will be used for the hub activities

August 29th - 10th September - Second badge of stakeholder consultation with the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, and agencies of state for licenses, and permission to operate and collaborate with the University of Cape Coast.

September 12th - 14th - third and final consultation with student heads and department associations to educate them about the project and solicit their assistance on how to implement and execute the project to success.

The expected outcome of the meeting is:

• To set up a committee to select members of the hub
• Select leaders who can collaborate on on-campus activities and activities of the hub
• Draw up a constitution for the operation of the hub and stipulate time table for training and how training will be carried out
• Select members of the hub for the first barge of training
• Separate them under the three cohorts of training which are; Entrepreneur, IT development, and trainers

September 18th - 20th - Publicity across the entire campus and media sensitization about the official launch of the hub on the 25th of September. Using fliers, banners, and print and media inclusive of local radio stations on the campus.

Activities to be carried out include;

• Media day out and sensitization
• A float throughout the entire campus of the University of Cape Coast
• Sending out invitation letters to dignitaries in the community, the university authorities, and student leaders.

September 25th - Official launch of the Cardano Lady's Hub (CLU)

September 26th - October 10th - Training will mainly be theoretically based on critical topics necessary to address the Grow Africa Grow Cardano challenge in IT development, entrepreneurship, and training which are well-prepared by highly trained resource persons with the aim to teach and educate women in the hub to spur head the African transformational agenda of Cardano.

Topics that will be taught are ;

1. Blockchain
2. Cryptocurrency
3. IT development using Java, Javascript, HTML, etc
4. Blockchain Training
5. IT and blockchain entrepreneurship just to mention a few

October 12th - 25th - Training of women which will mainly be based on practical applications of what they have learned theoretically.

Activities to be carried out in this stage include the following;

1. Practical applications of IT development with pre-listed projects to be set by our IT consultant (done by the cohort as a group)
2. Practical applications on an entrepreneurial project to be undertaken by women in the entrepreneurial cohort led by our entrepreneurial consultant (done by the cohort as a group)
3. Practical applications on training schemes to be carried out and led by our consultant in the training cohort (done by the cohort as a group)

October 26th - 29th - All women in the hub will work on their individual projects for graduating from the project.

October 27th- 28th - Invitation letters will be sent to partners and stakeholders of the project to come in their numbers to witness the graduation ceremony and the presentation of all projects to the general mass of people invited.

October 30 - This is the last day where project consultants offer technical assistants to cohorts about their individual projects. A time set aside to give direct feedback, and help those who are facing difficulties and will receive mentorship in order to ensure that everybody finished their projects on time.

October 31st - This is the day of graduating our first cohort of the Cardano Lady's Hub (CLH)

Activities to be carried out include:

1. Opening prayer
2. opening remarks from the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast
3. Speech from the director of the Hub
4. Start of projects by every cohort
5. Awards of marks for the best projects
6. Time to merry and interact, short break and lunch
7. Presentation of awards for best projects in each cohort
8. Awards presentation to graduating students of the hub who come up top in the three cohorts and certificates to every woman who has successfully graduated from Cardano Lady's Hub (CLH)
9. Closing remarks from one of the cohort members
10. Closing prayers

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

With my experience in how hubs operate and are started in Ghana having had the opportunity to collaborate and organize certain programs in hubs this is the cost breakdown.

The total budget requested for the first phase is $15000 taking into consideration inflation and the falling rate of the cedi the breakdown is as follows:

1. Rent of space to be used as a temporary place for activities of the hub…..$1000
2. Computers, printers, and projectors to be used for teaching and training of women in the hub ……..$3000
3. Furniture and tables to be used as sitting places for members of the hub as well as participants …..$2000
4. Refreshment, sustenance, and incentive to be used as rewards for members, sustenance during breaks, and provide transport services to members from the campus to the hub ….$1000
5. Insurance services coverage (safety or hazard) to ensure any third-level liability will be covered for the space rented and any other accidents that come about…..$500
6. Training materials used for training members and any other activities of the hub………………$1000
7. Allowance for Resource persons, inclusive of transport from their place of stay to the hub and cater for any other needs that come about… $1000
8. Office supplies for the smooth running of office……$1000
9. Travel cost to cover any field trips, research projects, and any other issue…….$1000
10. Miscellaneous to cover any other unforeseen or unplanned expenditure…..$2000
11. Graduation ceremony for successful women who complete the course, cost of awards, certificates, breakfast, and lunch for dignitaries……..$2000

Total

$15500

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The Team Members

Fidelia Atampoaka Ayaabilla is a student of the University of Cape Coast in level 300 (3rd year) studying economics, a field officer with Health for All Project (HAP), two years working with WADA Cardano organizing programs, worked in management, technology, and training on blockchain-related topics, CA/PA in Fund 8, and aspiring CA/PA in Fund 9

Abdul Rashid Adamah Yahaya is the managing director of GstXPals Union (a Community-Based Organization, and Project Coordinator for Health for All Project HAP) a not-for-profit organization, five years of experience as a strategic Marketer, seven years of experience in the organization of programs, have a degree in Marketing and Arts and PA/CA in Fund 8, and looking forward to Fund 9 as a CA/PA

Mohammed Mustapha is a trained accountant by profession, a hub leader at WADA, a global grassroots, runs a private cryptocurrency and Fintech solutions for an inclusive and freer financial future, a passionate librarian and National Coordinator for Ghana at the African Students for Liberty, manages over 5 student chapters in 5 different universities in Ghana, he has organized more than 30 cryptocurrency events and over 15 virtual meetings in Ghana and Africa. He is passionate about the adoption of crypto on the continent through educational campaigns and programs both in Ghana and Africa, and he recently joined the Cardano blockchain as an Ambassador and hosted a local meetup to commemorate the Cardano Summit 2021 held on the 25th - 26th of September 2021, he has from 2021 hosted 4 Cardano meetup with over 300 people in attendance in Ghana. https://www.linedin.com/in/mohammed-mustapha-yakubu-a08455125

www.t.me/mmustaphayakubu

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes

We will seek further funding from the catalyst because I and my team are looking forward to expanding this project to almost all universities in the country. The dream now for this proposal is to start in the Central Region where the university of Cape Coast is located and the mission is, we are looking at scaling it up from fund 9 onwards to other Funds like 10 and so forth to give as much reach to women in tertiary institutions as possible like what the women of Cape Coast university are enjoying to keep on increasing the scope of Cardano throughout Ghana, especially amongst ladies at the university level. The vision of the project is to continuously seek out young and brilliant women at the universities around Ghana to have the opportunity to be part of the blockchain industry, especially Cardano to grow it to the level where Africa will be a major contributor to the ecosystem. The aim is to give at least 100,000 women the chance to train under three main thematic areas which are to become developers, trainers, and entrepreneurs to be self-sustaining and ensure that African women also contribute their quota to the development of blockchain in the world. So, we will be coming back to the project Catalyst for more funding opportunities in a subsequent round of funding.

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

In the month of July 2022, I and my team will start the groundwork of the project by identifying the channels we will use to meet the stakeholders of the University of Cape Coast, we will investigate to know the channels of authority and any other documents or procedures we need to have to initiate the first stakeholder discussion with the school.

In the month of August, we will start looking for office space around the campus of the University of Cape Coast a place where we can have all our training schemes. We will use this month to understand the legal ways and processes we will follow to get our hub registered to operate under the laws of Ghana.

In the same month of August, we hope to start the operation and in the first meeting, attendance will be taken to know the number of people who have come for the meeting against the number that expresses interest in the hub from the google registration document. This is to ensure we tabulated and know the difference between our actual from the expected. At all our meetings attendance will be taken to check and ensure we know the category of students who participate in our hub and why some people will stop. Investigations will periodically be initiated to ascertain why some of the ladies do not come frequently in order to put checks in place to ensure we check absenteeism.

Every month from August to the time we graduate the first cohorts we shall send out an evaluation form to ensure we solicit from our members the nature of our training and how we can improve it for them. We shall also evaluate the style of our resource persons as to whether they are training the woman well according to the skills and training we expect the to get from the program. If there resource persons who are found to not meet the standard of our requirement further trainers will be recruited to take the person through further training to sharpen their skills in that regard.

In October, we shall also check the level of students who graduate from the program and look at the quality of their products which they have undertaken to match it against what we set out to achieve at the beginning of the project. The number who have graduated and the quality of experience they have inculcated to become successful in whichever field they have chosen for themselves.

It is important to note that, throughout the program, reports will be written and checked at the end of each month in order to check whichever mistake comes back and for our external stakeholders to have an idea of how the project is going.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

At the end of the three months training of the project:

• At the end of the training, those who graduate as the best students on the project will be supported to bring their vision into reality and project the Cardano ecosystem to a wider audience. Those who do not do well will also be supported to fine-tune their projects and will be offered further training opportunities under the project to also come out with brilliant projects for further funding opportunities under the project catalyst.

• All members who show great passion and willingness to explore further the Cardano ecosystem will be maintained to be part of the hub to help train upcoming cohorts in the project to ensure their skills does go to waste. In fact, all the graduates who come out the best will also automatically be maintained under the hub to inspire those coming to also be serious about the project.

• The project Cardano Lady's Hub (CLH), will be the go-to hub for the training of all tertiary students who are females in the country starting with the University of Cape Coast

  [AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

It is entirely a new proposal

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

SDG Subgoals

4.3 - By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university

4.7 - By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

4.3.1 - Participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months, by sex

4.7.1 - Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment