#BUIDLing in Africa: Laying a solid foundation for 1 billion+ people
The African blockchain ecosystem is continuously growing and drawing attention from everywhere bringing together startup founders, developers, investors, corporates, governments, non-profits…pretty much everyone. We’ve seen great blockchain projects in remittances, payments, crypto exchanges and many more. There have also been large scale enterprise implementations of blockchain such as Project Khokha which saw the South African Reserve Bank successfully run a PoC (Proof of Concept) in utilizing DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) for interbank wholesale settlements. There are many incubation/acceleration programs and hubs focused on blockchain and emerging technologies springing up from Lagos to Nairobi, Kampala, Joburg, Cape Town and other cities. For this ecosystem to thrive, all these actors and more need to collaborate in various ways to create innovative products. Some factors which will enable the ecosystem to thrive are an enabling environment (regulation, infrastructure, media), mentorship, access to funding (especially for startups) and most importantly education.
A Continent on the Rise — but with challenges
Africa as a continent has challenges. In 2018, the World Bank estimated unemployment in Sub Saharan Africa to be at 7.32% with Lesotho, South Africa and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) occupying the top three spots at approximately 28%, 27% and 26% respectively (World Bank). An African Development Bank report estimates that 10 to 12 million African youths enter the workforce each year but only 3.1 million jobs are created leaving a vast majority of the youth unemployed (AFDB). The same report indicates that Africa’s youth population is expected to double to more than 830 million by 2050. Africa also has the world’s youngest population with about 60% of the continent being under 25 (WEF).
Many of these young people in Africa are excluded from the labour force for reasons beyond their control such as lack of skills and a lack of work experience. Record high unemployment rates such as these perpetuate cycles of poverty, crime, risky migration and other challenges for Africa and the world at large. Youths in Africa are a great asset which can be harnessed for the continent’s growth and development. African youths have a strong drive for learning new things and entrepreneurship.
The Opportunity
In a previous post, I indicated how Africa has an advantage over other regions in that there are fewer legacy systems to get in the way of innovation and we can leapfrog to develop new business models and technology because we have a clean slate. Africa’s youthful population is our greatest asset and can be harnessed to develop these new business models and technological breakthroughs. Majority of this youthful population do not possess the necessary skills required to create these new technologies to leapfrog us into the future. We, therefore need to educate the youth (and also the older generation) on the tools they need to launch us into a better future and not only be consumers of new technology. The other reason why we need to develop these new business models driven by technology is because the economic structures of today may not be able to support the young growing population of tomorrow.
Software engineering skills are lacking globally and it is estimated that by 2020 (in the US alone), there will be about one million software engineering job openings (Mendix). Drilling further down to blockchain, LinkedIn estimates that the demand for blockchain developers grew 33x globally in 2018 and will continue to increase (LinkedIn). I strongly believe that empowering Africans (especially the youth) with blockchain software development skills and other new technology skills is our best bet in leapfrogging into the future. Furthermore, with youths being empowered with these skills, the continent can truly reap the benefits of this revolutionary technology. This will have far-reaching effects in unlocking Intra-African trade that could facilitate the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), create a more inclusive financial system, streamline healthcare services and many more benefits.
The above reasons and more are why the Africa Blockchain Alliance (ABA) was born. We have a vision of an interconnected Africa where there is free movement of knowledge and resources to uplift Africans as well as having a mission of equipping Africans with the best blockchain education, acumen and tools to shape Africa’s future. As a result of a personal passion to empower young people (being one myself) and my firm belief that technology, particularly blockchain holds great promise for Africa’s future, I have actively pushed and advocated for a customized blockchain developer program that will work for Africans. ConsenSys Academy and ABA have therefore gone into an agreement to train developers all across the continent.
The goal of the Ethereum developer program is to give developers the opportunity to gain the skills necessary to become industry-ready blockchain developers. The course will comprise a Pan African cohort with in-person sessions in select cities. This course is being offered at a much more reduced rate for Africa in order to foster diversity and inclusion. ABA will work with our network of partners across the continent and in the diaspora to provide mentorship and support activities in the course of this program. Developers that get enrolled into the program will need to complete a project before they’re issued with their certification which will be on the Ethereum blockchain. I am particularly excited about this initiative as it will help solve some of the continent’s challenges outlined above.
It takes a village to raise a child! (African proverb)
In the course of 2017 and 2018, a thriving blockchain community of developers, entrepreneurs, corporates and individuals has been built through various engagement activities across the continent. Myself and many groups have worked with various partners to spearhead community engagement efforts that have included meetups, events, hackathons and many more initiatives to advance blockchain in Africa. We intend to continue this community effort in 2019 and invite various stakeholders to participate and partner with us as we continue to advance blockchain and new technologies on the continent. One of the many fruits of this community engagement effort was the coming together of community members in South Africa to form the Ribbon blockchain platform which has set out to solve the global health problem of adherence and behavior change in public health settings using the power of the blockchain.
Ribbon blockchain seeks to utilize decentralised apps to engage users, patients, practitioners and healthcare providers directly in a transparent mutually-beneficial revenue sharing agreement. This is aligned to public health ethics, human rights, clinical best practice and health regulation law and policy. Ribbon’s core apps are incentives app, informed consent app, clinical trial app, prescription app, adherence app and behaviour change app. The incentives app PoC (Proof of Concept) uses Ethereum smart contracts and can be tested here.
As we launch the developer program and continue our community engagement efforts, we look forward to having more live working dApps like Ribbon from Africa solving unique African problems. It’s going to be an exciting year ahead for blockchain in Africa as we train developers en masse, build out blockchain solutions and build communities to help solve some of the continent’s biggest problems.
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