Africa Blockchain Developer Program | Announcements and Updates
Africa Blockchain Alliance launched the Africa Blockchain Developer Program in March 2019 in partnership with Consensys Academy, the educational arm of ConsenSys, a market-leading blockchain technology company.
Our vision with the program is to train 1000 blockchain developers across Africa and empower them with the tools they need to leverage blockchain to solve some of the pressing problems in Africa and the world.
The developer course is online and includes new and improved content that incorporates feedback from previous ConsenSys Academy graduates. The course which was created alongside top blockchain developers at ConsenSys and the Ethereum ecosystem covers Ethereum concepts, introduces key developer tools and critical aspects of smart contract and dApp development including building a front end and security best practices. The Africa Blockchain Alliance and its network of partners across the continent provide additional support through mentors, meetups, community events and in-person sessions in select African cities.
The first cohort of the program is graduating this month (July 2019) and applications are now open for the second cohort starting in August 2019. Africa Blockchain Alliance is looking to increase the number of developers and country representation with this next cohort and will also be awarding scholarships to a number of developers for the program, thanks to a $10,000 grant from ConsenSys Grants, which was announced during the 2019 Ethereal Summit in New York in May 2019.
Unveiling the first set of blockchain developers out of the program
The first cohort of the program had developers from seven African countries participate in the program.
The program saw the developers go through an intensive curriculum with mentors from the ABA network mentoring and supporting the developers through weekly office hours; answering developer questions and guiding the developers through their end of program projects.
The graduating students from the program will be placed in one of three tracks for ongoing support by the end of the program. These tracks include:
- Projects: Working on blockchain projects as a freelance developer.
- Job Placement: Joining global blockchain companies as a blockchain developer.
- Startup: Starting a blockchain project or startup to address unique African challenges.
Here’s what some of the developers had to say about the program:
The Africa Blockchain Developer Program is one of the best online education programs I’ve taken in my life. It has successfully initiated me into the Blockchain space, and fully-prepared me for venturing into this emerging technology sector.
“The Africa Blockchain Developer Program was quite informative both in a theoretical and practical aspect. The mentorship and office hour sessions were top notch and provided efficient and quick solutions in situations where i was stuck technically.”
Three months ago, I joined the first cohort of the Africa Blockchain Developer Program. It gave me the opportunity to learn more about ethereum blockchain development. I learned to develop solidity smart contracts and I built my own decentralized application using solidity and truffle. Thanks to Africa Blockchain Alliance for giving me the opportunity to be part of this program. I highly recommend it to every African developer interested in blockchain development.
Registration for Cohort 2
Applications are now open for the second cohort of the program. This will be a bigger and improved cohort, drawing upon lessons from the first cohort. ABA has on-boarded 10 additional technical mentors from our network (with more in the pipeline) thus increasing the capacity to support more developers. We have also partnered with incubation and acceleration hubs in various African cities where the developers can go into for internet access; be in a conducive working environment and to network with each other and ABA members in those cities.
Developers on the course will have access to dedicated mentors who will have weekly office hours with them for 1 to 2 hours per week and answer their questions daily. Developers will also have unlimited access to an online forum with over 2,000 developers who are all current and past developers trained by Consensys Academy.
Just like the first cohort, the program will run for a period of 11 to 12 weeks (approximately 3 months). Graduates will be issued certificates on the Ethereum blockchain upon successful completion of the course and delivery of a project. Graduates will also be placed on one or more of the 3 tracks mentioned above for ongoing support.
As earlier mentioned there are a limited number of scholarship opportunities available. Information on how to apply for the scholarship will be communicated after a successful application to the program.
Apply here for the program
For more information, please visit our website or send an email to developer@afriblockchain.org
We also welcome collaborations with various local and international groups to join us in this movement to train developers en masse as we strive to make Web3 and the world more inclusive, open and fair.
For more information, please visit: www.afriblockchain.org
or contact
partnerships@afriblockchain.org
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Medium: Africa Blockchain Alliance
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