Please describe your proposed solution.

This project seeks to scout for entrepreneurs in selected tertiary schools in Ghana by organizing opportunity summits for potential student entrepreneurs to engage with industry experts and further groom the students to unlock the potentials in them. Most students have projects that can solve humanity problems but these projects are not being fulfilled because of funding and some also lack the knowledge on how to go about such ideas. Cardano provides a lot of opportunities to individuals with ideas through its catalyst funding and collaborative communities in the ecosystem. The project will educate students on the various opportunities in the Cardano ecosystem through summits organised in the selected tertiary schools.

Description of Solution:

1. Opportunity Summit: Summits will be organised in the tertiary schools to educate participants on the cardano blockchain. During the summit, experts in the Cardano ecosystem will be invited to educate the participants on what the Cardano ecosystem is about.
2. Breakout Session: There would be a breakout session during the summit where the participants will have one-on-one engagement with the resource persons to dive deeper into their field of interest in the ecosystem.
3. Onboarding of participants: Students would be on bearded onto the Cardano ecosystem after the breakout session where they can appreciate and explore the ecosystem.
4. Incubation program: Participants would be assigned to the various resource persons based on their interests to further groom them after the summit on a common platform.
5. Monthly online event: There would be a monthly online sessions where the various hubs will share their successes and insights after the main in-person summit.

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

This project will have positive impact on the wider Cardano Community by:

1. Increasing the number of student catalyst proposers: This project envisions that at least 20 participants of the summit that went through the incubation program will submit proposals in the next funding round to increase the number of student catalyst proposers.
2. Increasing the number of student blockchain engineers: Our project have taken into consideration student blockchain entrepreneurs for the incubation program after which they contribute to the ecosystem by building on the cardano blockchain.
3. Increase in the number of student proposal assessors: Our project will train students on how to participate in the community review stage for them to contribute to the community in the next funding round. We envision that at least 60 percent of the participants will participate in the assessment stage.

The success of this project will be measured using the following:

1. Students Attendance: The number of students attending our summits will help us keep track of active participants and students preferences.
2. Number of student proposers: measure the number of student projects submitted in the next funding rounds .
3. Feedback from students: questionnaires would be issued to students after the summit and during the incubation phase to determine their satisfaction of the whole program.
4. Number of incubation hubs: the number of incubation hubs created will help the team measure the interest of students in various aspects of the cardano ecosystem.

In order to share our outputs and results of our project, we will employ the following strategies:

1. Website and social media channels: The website of YAFO Institute (www.yafoweb.org) will serve as a repository for information, updates on project, success stories for all stakeholders. Also, we will use the following social media platforms; twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn to share updates and outcomes from our project.
2. Documentaries: We will leverage on using short videos in sharing the success stories of participants of our incubation program. This will highlight the impact of the project, achievements, and challenges encountered and will be made available on the project website and social media channels.
3. Town Hall Presentations: We will also leverage on the various Town Hall meetings to share the updates on our project to the catalyst community.
4. Project Progress Reports: Proper documentation of activities right from the onset of the project will be done to provide stakeholders with the project's progress and impact to demonstrate transparency and accountability.

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?

We have a vibrant team capable of delivering this project with high levels of trust, transparency and accountability with inferences from several factors such as:

1. Team Experience: The project team at YAFO Institute consist of experienced individuals with track record in blockchain technology, education, project management, and entrepreneurship to ensure that all aspects of the project is designed and implemented successfully.
2. Capacity and Accountability: At YAFO Institute, we have successfully delivered series of students' projects and community projects which are available at www.yafoweb.org with funding from our partners. The project team consist of members who have been active in catalyst since fund 7. The team have individuals who have been active as community advisors, voters, and two community funded and completed projects since fund 7. Our main aim is to make a positive impact to the catalyst space.

We intend to validate our approach with the following goals;

GOALS:

1. Awareness creation: Majority of tertiary students haven't heard about cardano and project catalyst and, therefore, this project seeks to create the awareness among students
2. Increased adoption
3. Stronger campus hubs
4. Funding avenue for Students

VALIDATIONS:

Goal 1: Through our summits and follow up online events, students would be introduced to cardano and project catalyst and educate them on the various opportunities in the community.

Goal 2: students would be guided to create wallets and all incentives for participating in the summit and the incubation program would be paid through their wallets

Goal 3: We will establish cardano incubation hubs after our summits to further groom participants to fully understand the opportunities in the ecosystem in order to have stronger campus hubs

Goal 4: We envision that about 70 percent of our training program get to submit proposals in the catalyst funding rounds

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

Project Development, Planning and Setup (4 weeks)

To achieve this milestone, the team will undertake the following activities;

• Design project objectives and project scope (1 week)
• Formation of project team and roles allocation (1 week)
• Stakeholder consultations and identification of key seminar topics (1 week)
• Detailed project planning and resource allocations (1 week)

Output

• Detailed completed documented project plan to execute project

Acceptance Criteria:

• Well defined roadmap for project implementation and completion
• All stakeholders contacted and onboarded
• Key seminar topics identified

>Opportunity Summits (8 weeks)

To achieve this milestone, the team will undertake the following activities;

• Identify and invite industry experts, blockchain entrepreneurs and local cardano ambassadors as speakers and trainers (2 weeks)
• Booking of venue and coordination of necessary logistics for the summit (1 week)
• Advertisement/publicity to create awareness of the summit (1 week)
• Conduct of opportunity summit in selected tertiary schools (4 weeks)

Output

• Organized summits and workshops in selected tertiary schools
• Collection of students feedback data and attendee registration form

Acceptance criteria:

• Increased awareness of Cardano and Project catalyst among students
• Active participation of students in the event
• Positive feedback and evaluation from attendees

>Incubation Program (13 weeks)

In order to achieve this milestone, we will have the following activities done;

• Assess students interest in the various fields (1 week)
• Recruit mentors with experience in the various industries (2 weeks)
• Creation of incubation hubs and assigning of students to mentors based on their selected interests (1 week)
• Facilitate regular student-mentor meetings with supportive materials needed (8 weeks)
• Organize online event to host all the incubation hubs to share feedbacks and impacts from their trainings (1 week)

Output

• Mentors selected based on field of expertise
• Hubs for the incubation program created
• Incubation materials created and finalized

Acceptance Criteria:

• Mentors with highest qualification identified and selected
• Mentors equipped with necessary materials needed for the incubation program
• Students allocated to mentors based on their interest

>Project wrap-up and and closing reports (7 weeks)

The following activities will help us complete our final milestone;

• Collect and analyze data on student satisfaction and project outcomes (2 weeks)
• Prepare comprehensive report covering the project impacts, challenges and success (4 weeks)
• Share the project report on the partner organization website, social media channels (1 Week)

Output

• Conducted evaluation surveys and data gathering
• Analyzed and interpreted data
• Well completed project impact report

Acceptance Criteria:

• Clear understanding of project's impact
• Recommendations for future project improvement
• Transparent documentation and reporting of project outcomes and achievements

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

Joshua Larweh Tetteh - Project Manager

He has a BSc. (Hons) in Agriculture from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He has more than three years of experience in volunteer management and non-profit management. He served as the President for the YAFO Campus Hive where he collaborated with his team to organize student events on campus. Joshua is currently the Programs Manager for YAFO Institute and he has successfully organized student events in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast and Methodist University. As the Programs Manager, he also collaborated with the African Institute for DeFi and Blockchain (AIDBLOCK) to organize blockchain policy dialogues that promote free trade. He was part of the team at the Ashanti Regional Department of Agriculture which coordinated the activities of the Government of Ghana's Planting for Food and Jobs program in the region to ensure that there are checks and balances. He has been involved in catalyst since Fund 8 as a Community Reviewer and a co-proposer in fund 9.

Role: Joshua will be responsible for ensuring the successful completion of this project.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-tetteh-a1b391192

Nathaniel Dwamena - Training and Logistics Manager

He has a B. A (Hons) in Geography and Rural Development and 2023 candidate for Bachelor of Law. He is a researcher and has more than ten years of experience in think tank development, non-profit management, and business development consulting. He was part of the team contracted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Ghana) to conduct a study on red tape for doing business in Ghana. He successfully completed think tank training in Nigeria and project management training in Kenya, which aided in his successful graduation from the Atlas Leadership Academy, Atlas Network (USA). He is a member of Wada and has been involved in Catalyst since Fund 7 as a proposal advisor and proponent who has successfully completed two projects.

Role: Nathaniel will be responsible for managing the training aspects of this project and all logistics for the project

Profile : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-dwamena-02578a127/

Asamoah Kwaku Junior - Finance Controller

Asamoah has a degree in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah university of Science and Technology and has been a part of the Cardano community for some time as a community reviewer. He brings to the team a rich experience in the banking sector. He was the President of Yafo Campus Hive-KNUST chapter.

Role: Asamoah will be responsible for ensuring the accurate appropriation of funds in all aspects of the project to ensure the successful completion of the project

Profile :http://www.linkedin.com/in/asamoah-kwaku-junior-688347186

Philip Attakpa - Marketing/Advertising Manager

Philip is expertise in marketing and has more than three years of experience in the field of marketing. As the Media Relations Officer at YAFO Institute, he has built partnerships with numerous media houses to advertise programs for the Institute.

Role: Philip will be responsible for marketing and advertising this project to the target audience in order to have them at our summits.

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-attakpah-250a34167

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Project Development, Planning and Setup:

• Stakeholder consultations - 400 ADA
• Project Plan Development - 1,000 ADA
• Administrative Expenses - 400 ADA

Total - 1,800 ADA

Opportunity Summit:

• Resource persons fees - 2,000 ADA
• Venue rental and logistics - 3,000 ADA
• Materials and resources - 1,500 ADA
• Advertisement/Publicity - 1,200 ADA
• Incentives for participation - 500 ADA

Total - 8,200 ADA

Incubation Program:

• Mentors recruitment and coordination - 300 ADA
• Hub creation and assigning of participants - 450 ADA
• Regular student-mentor meetings - 500 ADA
• Online event to host all incubation hubs - 1,500 ADA
• Mentors allowance - 8,000 ADA

Total - 10,750 ADA

Project wrap-up and reporting:

• Data collection and analysis - 2,150 ADA
• Compilation of comprehensive reports - 1,500 ADA

Total - 3,650 ADA

Project team allowance - 4,000 ADA

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

By organizing Opportunity Summits in tertiary schools with the follow up Incubation Program will benefit the cardano ecosystem and project catalyst in the following ways;

1. Increased awareness and adoption: our summits is going to create awareness among students about cardano and the various avenues in the community that they can take advantage of in pursuing their entrepreneurship dreams. All incentives for participating in the summit will be paid through ADA wallets and therefore this will increase the adoption of ADA which will have positive impact in the ecosystem.
2. Increased collaboration in the ecosystem: Our incubation program is going to bring student developers to the ecosystem who will collaborate with other developers to build on the cardano blockchain to bring improvements into the ecosystem. The project will also bring individuals interested in governance to collaborate with already existing governance bodies in the ecosystem to increase governance improvements in catalyst.

Overall, the vision to expand the cardano ecosystem and its long-term viability among students can be aided by the successful completion of this project