The 2022 Africa Blockchain Institute (ABI) Incubation Program in Collaboration with NEAR Foundation
At Africa Blockchain Institute (ABI), we believe that Africa is a treasure chest waiting to be opened and blockchain technology is the key. This is why we focus our efforts to champion initiatives that drive digital transformation in Africa through blockchain technology. One of these efforts is our structured Incubation Program. Launched in 2021 with Rwanda as our focus, this initiative is aimed at grooming African startups who choose to leverage blockchain technology to deliver unique use cases.
This year in March, after a rigorous application and interview process, we kicked off the 4 month long 2nd edition with 4 teams of ambitious, forward thinking individuals from Egypt and Zimbabwe. These projects range from idea stage to early stage companies and have been assessed to have a strong business case and market potential. Our potential game changers in the African blockchain space are:
- Mint Condition:
The future of content ownership is now. Mint Condition is a platform for creators and instructors to mint courses, tutorials, interviews and documentaries as NFTs. With this model, collectors can learn & earn with the creators through a vibrant resale ecosystem. Creators can also receive recurring royalties pushing value for content creation higher.
- Tigere Housing Company:
Tigere is a social Fintech — PropTech business bringing housing finance to the underbanked and unbanked members of society in Africa. Tigere merges blockchain technology, alternative credit risk assessment and machine learning to generate and constantly update credit scores for its clients to enhance financial inclusion for the economically viable informal sector individuals across the continent. The business seeks to launch a number of innovative housing finance products which include, real estate tokenization, incremental housing construction micro-finance and rent-to-own. These products over time will enable Tigere to create a unique database of borderless credit powered by a trusted blockchain network. Tigere believes financial inclusion begins with a Home.
- Reitfast
Reitfast plans to disrupt real estate investment in Egypt by providing a blockchain based tokenization platform helping citizens to invest in selected high revenue commercial real estate. Through Reitfast, real estate developers can achieve faster liquidity through lead generations and effective digital marketing.
- UmojaLands
UmojaLands is a platform for data driven lending, insurance and market linkage for rural smallholder farmers. At the core of the business is a comprehensive lending-as-a-service platform and a remote sensing based crop monitoring feature. To reduce the risks of lending for the financiers, Umojalands uses blockchain technology to build financial identities and credit profiles for un/underbanked small holder farmers while also featuring a farmland exchange marketplace to link farm seekers with underutilized land available for joint venture, lease, crops share or even buying.
Meet Our Faculty
Olayinka Odediran
Ms. Odeniran is the founder and chairwoman of Black Women Blockchain Council (BWBC) and a highly respected compliance and risk management expert. She has over 16 years of experience in compliance helping financial firms navigate through international regulations. She also holds an M.S. in Cybersecurity Management and Policy which she relies on to provide information assurance in the blockchain landscape. For the past four years, Ms. Odeniran oversaw the regulatory and compliance framework for a global corporate governance and responsible investment firm in her role as the Chief Compliance Officer. She left the firm in April 2019 and has since started her own Cybersecurity firm, CYBSECWATCH which provides compliance, infosec educational tools and cybersecurity consulting to the financial industry. Ms. Odeniran is driven by her desire to make all sectors of Tech inclusive and diverse.
Chris Larry Bates
Chris Bates is a telecommunications and cyber-security specialist. He received a B.S. in Psychology from Indiana University in 2007 and a M.S. in Telecommunications in 2009 with a focus in immersive mediated environments. During the first M.S. he worked on creating digital algorithms that generated music with human interaction. He received his M.S. in Cyber-Security for enterprise scale organizations in July, 2016 from Colorado Technical University. He will receive a doctorate in Cyber-Security and Information Assurance from CTU in 2022.
Currently he is the Pan-African Grants Lead at the Smart Contract Research Forum, which aims to bridge the gap between academia and professionals working in the blockchain and smart contract landscape. Chris wants to bridge the gap between technology and the people, in order to realize the economy of the future.
Dr. Tammy Francis Ph.D
Dr. Tammy is the CEO and founder of Catalyst 4 Change Global, LLC and the C4C Global Community. Dr. Tammy has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. Currently, she is a tenured Associate Professor at a community college in Texas. She also teaches blockchain courses at Althash University, a global campus that offers online blockchain programs. Additionally, she serves as the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, Certification, and Accreditation with the International Council of Registered Blockchain Professionals (ICORBP).
Dr. Tammy is a global strategist, consultant, author, and speaker. She empowers and equips leaders, entrepreneurs, and business startups all over the world to move in the direction of more and prepare for what’s next with purpose-driven, creative business solutions. She also offers goal setting/vision sessions, purpose planning workshops, and conscious connections retreats. Dr. Tammy inspires others on their journey toward more while sharing hers and facilitating conversations in her Women Aspiring for More and Catalyst 4 Change Global Online Reading Communities. Additionally, she provides education on the new literacies, multiliteracies, future of work, and careers in the blockchain and digital assets industries. Dr. Tammy also creates blockchain programs and certifies blockchain professionals and blockchain programs, institutions, and organizations around the world.
Abhishek Bhattacharya
Abhishek is a Co-founder at Whrrl, India’s first Agri-Fintech Blockchain platform, and was a Product Owner for the service product at Policybazaar.com (an Indian unicorn insurance aggregator). He is a serial entrepreneur and a proficient Author, and has been in Blockchain space for about 4.5 years. Abhishek is also an Advisor to several startups such as eSports.com (who raised 5.8 Million EUR in their ICO), Vayla, Blockchain Advisory Council, NafCoin et. al. His second book (Secure Chains: Cybersecurity and Blockchain-powered Automation) has been published by BPB Publications — Asia’s Largest Publisher of IT Books, and two books by Springer and Taylor & Francis are coming out in 2021.
Abhishek is a regular speaker in the blockchain space and also has taken lectures in blockchain for 5,000+ faculties, PhDs, and students worldwide. He is an Educator with ODEM, and a visiting faculty with Amity’s Post Graduate Program in Blockchain Technology and Management. He has also advised the Certified Blockchain Professional (CBP) Course by EC-Council that’s present across 145 countries. Lastly, he was nominated for the “Top 50 Tech Leaders” award by InterCon Dubai.
What Next?
With NEAR Foundation as our partner, the Incubation Program features product development support, marketplace and incentive design advice, as well as business guidance from our distinguished faculty while enjoying full access to software materials. We have also welcomed the presence of Yarmirama Grace Ashama, Product Manager at Cowrywise; Harrison Obi, PR and Marketing Manager (Africa) at FTX; and Nnamdi Uba, CEO of House Africa to coach our participating teams on product management, marketing, and land titling using blockchain technology. The Program will be crowned with a Demo Day on June 30th, 2022, at Norrsken House, Kigali, Rwanda, where successful startups would have the opportunity to pitch their business to investors, experts, and members of the blockchain community.
DEMO Day Registration (Virtual): https://bit.ly/abidemoday
For Investors: https://bit.ly/abiinvestorsform
General Enquiries: info@africablockchain.institute
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