Please describe your proposed solution

The process of moving funds from fiat to Cardano assets and vice versa in many African countries is quite cumbersome and long winding. This has no doubt discouraged many prospective users and hampered the growth of the ecosystem in the region. Furthermore, the challenge of going through and exchange has resulted in loss of funds/assets by newbies to web3. I say this going by my experience and standing as a Web3 evangelist and trainer. This has further discouraged onboarding to Web3 and Cardano ecosystem in particular. The few multi-countries on/off Ramp service providers often do not extend services to many African countries due to factors related to regulatory issues among others.

We believe a sustainable solution will be a ramp service that facilitate direct exchange of fiat for ADA and Cardano stablecoins and vice versa using an easy to navigate interface. Based on the different financial industry regulatory environment across various countries in the region, its best starting with perhaps the most populous and one with the highest Web3 adoption – Nigeria. Where the service is well received it would be scaled out to other countries.

With specific recourse to the Nigerian financial industry, we intend to comply fully with regulations by partnering with payment processors ( already had preliminary discussions with a couple )and development of a web interface that will allow users remit fiat funds into a nominated bank account and receive almost instantly ADA or Cardano stablecoins into their Cardano wallets.

In the alternative, users can choose to bond a wallet address to their dedicated bank accounts, on receipt of funds from the bonded bank account, the equivalent crypto (ADA or stablecoin) is created to their wallets.

At this iteration, the goal is to develop and deploy the DApp and validate it's acceptability in the Nigerian market. In subsequent iteration, we have the option of working with existing ramp service providers who lack and seek last mile service connection in certain African countries for future scale ups/roll outs in those countries. We believe Emurgo and partners will be of relevance in this regard.

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

At this stage and iteration, our goal is to validate the concept of faster and easier on/off ramp will lead to more onboarding to Cardano in Nigeria by solving a pain point for new to Cardano and new to crypto users.

We will develop the required interface for the service and provide vital/essential education and information to target prospective users (including new-to-crypto, new-to-Cardano, and existing Cardano users).

We are confident this will lead to the onboarding of hundreds of new users and extend the utility of the Cardano blockchain and Cardaano Native Assets in particular. Cryptocurrencies and stable coins in particular are getting more popular in Nigeria and the African continent and Blockchains that offer better alternatives and user experience will gain popularity and user numbers.

The positive impact will be measured using the following metrics

1. Number of outreaches and events to showcase Cardano and Carda-Ramp services

2. Number of new users onboarded to Cardano ecosystem.

3. The number of wallets connecting to the DApp and utilizing Carda-Ramp services .

4. The total value of fiat and Cardano native assets exchanged.

5. Collaboration with other Cardano ecosystem partners.

We plan to share the outputs from the project with the Cardano community using monthly/milestone reports, and the GitHub repository among others.

The proposed DApp will ultimately be made available to prospective users across the African region seeking on/off ramp to Cardano ADA/stablecoins.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

The proposal is very feasible in our opinion as it depends mainly on development of the DApp and effective marketing outreach to the target audience.

We intend to consult extensively within and outside the Cardano community before and during the project implementation. Key steps/stages in implementation include:

Prospective users surveys

Code development and testing

Community outreach/events

Deployments and improvements

With ongoing engagements with the Cardano community for feedback.

The Proposer and Team Lead is an experienced Financial Consultant with years of banking experience. He has been involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies both as an investor and evangelist. He will be supported by other team members with financial sector and web3 experience.

On the code development, we plan to engage the best developer teams within the Cardano community.

What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1: Milestone ! (1 month)

Team building and assignment of roles.

Target users survey for design of the proposed DApp.

Discussion with the Developers for the DApp.

Acceptance Criteria

• Survey questionnaire
• Identifed survey participants
• Administration of the survey
• Discussion with developers

Deliverables

Team is formed and defined tasks.

Clear cut understanding of what will be in DApp.

Agreement and contract with the developer.

Milestone 2: Milestone 2 (3 months)

Commission DApp development.

Testing of the DApp.

Engagement with switching service providers for inter – bank payments/transfers

Acceptance Criteria

• Detailed discussion with payment service providers.
• Liaise and monitor progress with developers

Deliverables

DApp delivered.

Agreement with payment service provider.

Milestone 3: Milestone 3 (4 months)

Marketing Campaign

Onboard users

Acceptance Criteria

• Specifics and details of outreach and marketing events agreed.
• Implement the outreach and marketing programme

Deliverables

Organize and hold outreach/promotional events.

Onboard target number of users

Final Milestone: Final Milestone:

Closeout

Deliverables

Close-out report and video

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Ona Ohimor

Proposer and Team Lead

The lead proposer is a finance professional with several years of banking experience. He has been in web3 for over three years, initially as a crypto enthusiast but now as a Blockchain and Web3 evangelist. He has trained and onboarded dozens of newbies to Blockchain. Besides, his passion for crypto, he is an advocate for small and growing businesses and provides functional skills training for businesses.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/onoakpomaohimor

Efe Christian O – Technical Lead

Efe will co-ordinate the technical aspects of the projects including working with developer team and over seeing integrations of various aspects of the project. He is an experienced IT engineer with many years of experience in areas of payments and switching services.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/efe-ohimor-099a222

Emmanuel Rukevwe – Project Assistanct

Emmanuel will assist with developer relations and marketing among other duties.

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Budget costs are in ADA.

The first table is breakdown per role and event/item while the second table is breakdown per milestone.

Budget total is 77,400 ADA.

Developer role will cover 3 months of initial development and additional 2 months for testing, deployment and improvements.

No dependencies

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The proposal seeks to fund at least a team of four excluding the DApp developer and switching service provider with the goal of achieving the following outcomes:

Survey the target market segment on efficient ramping service.

Develop a Prototype DApp for on/off ramping.

Onboarding of 500 DApp users (both new-to-blockchain and new-to-Cardano users).

Ensure smother and faster one step onboarding process without need for centralized exchanges

Increase and enhance Cardano as a DEFI platform.

We believe this is great value for the Cardano ecosystem as the funds we deliver insightful feasibility/survey, a prototype DApp and validate the concept of a better ramping experience while also bringing potentially thousands of users to the network.