In my previous article I talked about Cardano in Africa. Cardano is partnering with African countries to build infrastructure and to solve real world problems by providing necessary resources - while Cardano benefits by getting mass adoption. We talked about Cardano in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. To read more about this article here is the link https://www.lidonation.com/en/posts/cardano-in-Africa.
Wada
Cardano and Africa`s bright future go hand in hand. In Africa there is an alliance which is a resource network for unlocking the potential of Africa and the diaspora with distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence and automation. The organization that does this started in west Africa, and called itself the “West Africa Decentralized Alliance ( WADA)”. Since then, and as you will see below, their work has grown quickly, and is no longer just in west Africa. Therefore, they no longer use the localized name or the capitalized acronym - now it’s just “Wada.” Wada is an international alliance with local footprints, which equips local developers and entrepreneurs to build decentralized applications and businesses for their future.
Wada has three pillars which are: Infrastructure and capacity-building Education Dapps creation Wada provides developers with resources such as consulting and support for Dapps design and implementation strategy. Wada also provides education and training on Project Catalyst - making African entrepreneurs and students aware of Project Catalyst and the opportunities it affords.
Wada in Project Catalyst
Wada had several projects submitted in Fund 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Project Catalyst.
In Fund 4 they had a project called “West Africa Proposer Outreach” which was funded. The aim was to provide training, education and hosting online events to make west African entrepreneurs aware of Project Catalyst funding. This project was completed! In the same funding round they also had other projects funded as well: “West Africa devs tools and events”, “Local centers in west Africa”, and “West Africa catalyst onboarding.” You can check out these projects and their progress here on Lido Nation using our Catalyst Explorer tools.
West Africa: Dev Tools & Events
Solution: Educating developers on Cardano by developing Haskell & Plutus educational material and high-impact virtual workshops, events and hackathons
West Africa Proposer Outreach
Solution: A 2-Day Virtual Event with guest speakers, project proposals, interviews, live Q&A and 2x1-hour webinar workshops (French & English)
West Africa Catalyst Onboarding
Solution: Implement a diversified membership scheme to attract and engage W/Africans to contribute to Project Catalyst goals
Local Centers in West Africa
Solution: Obtain Cardano Foundation funding to register Hubs, and to enable access to the Foundation's oversight and resources.
In Fund 5 Wada’s “Media funnel for proposers” was one of their funded projects where they were to create engaging visual content to document proposal journeys from the bottom up and also encourage new users to join the Project Catalyst. “Wada university students catalyst registry” was another project funded in Fund 5. The aim of this project was to engage university students in Project Catalyst programs through education community outreach and engagement. Both of these projects are complete!
WADA Media Funnel for Proposers
Solution: Create engaging visual content to document proposal journey from the bottom up, and to motivate new users to come to into Project Catalyst.
WADA Uni Students Catalyst Registry
Solution: Diversify project catalyst inclusion through onboarding, navigation events, and resource provision for university students in West Africa
In Fund 6 WADA had several projects. First, “Strengthening stake pools in Africa ‘’ set out to design a unique system specifically for the unique challenges of running a stakepool and creating a learning pool. The second project was to “Scale up WADA`s outreach”; this project was to train mentors to support aspiring entrepreneurs to submit quality proposals. The third project was the “Green Lion (GL) leading in Ghana ‘’ where WADA is working in partnership with Green Lion to develop self-sustaining liquidity pools for providing businesses with low cost loans to the Ghanian informal sector. Shortly after Fund 6, Green Lion was acquired by its competitor, TradeDeopt.co - and we wonder how this shakeup may have affected the project! These are just a few projects funded in fund 6; these projects are still ongoing.
Green Lion (GL) lending in Ghana
Solution: Wada + Green Lion seek to develop self-sustaining liquidity pools for providing low cost business loans to the Ghanaian informal sector
Scale up WADA's Outreach Program
<p> African devs and entrepreneurs lack support to submit high quality proposals into project catalyst</p>
Strengthening Stake Pools in Africa
<p>Stakepools in Africa are subject to outages and infrastructure issues on top of the general risks faced by SPOs</p>
In fund 7 Wada had several projects. One was, “Djangui: Local Savings Account Mgmt”. The aim of this project is to create a decentralized platform to manage activities focusing on transparency and ownership rights of collection of funds, since previously the collectors were not transparent and exposed people to fraud. Another funded project is, “Small Change Wallet”; this came up as a result of a challenge in Cameroon where finding the right change to match purchase of goods was hard. wada aim of creating a native token and wallet to help collect small change. These are just a few projects proposed in fund 7 by wada; the projects are still ongoing.
Djangui: Local Savings Account Mgmt
Solution: Create a decentralized platform to manage collection activities focusing on: transparency and ownership rights of collected funds.
Small Change Wallet
Solution: Create a native token and a wallet to help collect small change making sure to incorporate an exchange platform with microfinance businesses
Conclusion
Out of 41+ proposals, Wada has won funding for a total of 19+ projects.
Why “41+”? Group attribution in this nascent and decentralized ecosystem is imperfect and evolving. Project Catalyst is an experiment, and all its contributors are junior scientists. Over the course of these first funds, alliances and partnerships have formed. It’s a little like starting a company, and a little like being lab partners with your best friend. In any case, it’s currently informal and hard to track - yet important and interesting as we seek to understand the landscape of this emerging ecosystem! You can view all - or most! - of Wada’s projects on the Wada group page of our Project Catalyst explorer tool: https://www.lidonation.com/en/project-catalyst/group/wada
Cardano awareness has increased significantly in Africa. Cardano aims at providing the necessary resources to keep projects in Africa operational by providing amenities such as power internet, networks, education and training to West Africans. Wada aims at facilitating access to blockchain education with business expansion and consulting services by connecting entrepreneurs, business owners and developers to the Cardano ecosystem for them to fulfill their dreams.
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