Funding Request - Celo Africa H1 2024
Authors: Daniel Kimotho, Umar Sebyala, Chimezie Chuta, Cynthia Kamau
Budget Request: $248,300 cUSD
Proposal Type: CPG Funding Request | Regional DAO
We’re excited to share our Draft proposal for Celo Africa H1 2024 in line with the Celo Public Goods Funding proposal for stakeholder input and early collaborations.
Summary
The proposal aims to allocate funds to the Celo Africa DAO from February 1st to June 30th, 2024, amounting to $248,300 cUSD. The goal is to accelerate the adoption of Celo throughout the African continent, including plans for expansion into Ghana and South Africa. The proposal outlines three primary focus areas: the Incubator program, attracting Web 3 talent to develop on Celo, and enhancing market awareness and brand positioning. By strategically allocating funds to these specific focus areas, the proposal endeavors to fortify and propel the Celo ecosystem within the African region during the specified time period.
Motivation
Following the success of Celo Africa DAO’s trial season 0, we recognize the significant value in extending its presence into 2024. This aims to leverage the established networks from season 0 and maintain a robust foothold in the African market.
Introduction
Celo Africa DAO has actively worked over the past six months to foster the adoption of Celo in Africa. During this time, we’ve successfully organized workshops and engaged with developers, inspiring a wave of innovation. Our initial focus has been on enhancing the capabilities of developers and founders.
As we move forward, our next significant step involves a more profound commitment to supporting talented community members, including developers, researchers, designers, and enthusiasts, in bringing their ideas to life to address some of Africa’s most pressing challenges. While our efforts to build and expand the ecosystem and raise brand awareness will continue, we are now taking a significant stride forward by introducing an incubator program and expanding to Ghana and South Africa. This marks the essence of Proposal 2.0, where we delve deeper into the details of our vision.
Focus Area 1: Incubator Program in Conjunction with Celo Camp
Total Budget - $35,000
The DAO will run an incubator program focused on Web3 founders building on Celo. Successful founders from each cohort will be presented to Celo Camp for acceleration and investment. The Incubator Program for African Innovators is designed to support early-stage Web3 projects in Africa by providing vital resources(technical support), mentorship, and essential infrastructure. Our program empowers entrepreneurs to navigate the complex Web3 landscape and aims to stimulate user growth on minipay and transaction growth on Celo in Africa. The top 3 projects will receive some seed support to help bring their MVPs to completion.
Program Components:
- Application and Selection Process
- Mentorship, and Training.
- Demo Days
Overview of the program
- Weeks 1-4: Introduction, Project refinement, and Web3 fundamentals.
- Weeks 5-8: Market research, Development and the MVP.
- Weeks 9-12: Compliance, Pitch Creation, Demo Day, and Graduation.
Here is the breakdown of the budget
| Item | Total |
|---|---|
| Grants to top 3 projects (between $1-5k) | $15,000 |
| 8 Level 1 developers to support projects we incubate(technical support to bring MVP to completion) | $20,000 |
Success Metrics
- 5+ successful projects that complete the incubator program for H1.
- 100% of start-ups are able to pitch their business ideas to the accelerator program.
- 50%+ acceptance rate to the Celo camp accelerator program.
- 5+ projects with a functioning MVP for H1.
Focus Area 2: Attracting Web 3 talent to build for Celo
Total Budget- $ 63,000
We’re committed to nurturing emerging Web3 talent, and we’ll achieve this by expanding our CodeJams( technical workshops) and Hackathons initiatives. In addition, we’ll introduce mentorship programs. Our primary objective is to establish a vibrant Web3 talent pool, connecting skilled individuals with partners and projects. Through hackathons, we’ll promote real-world problem-solving and collaboration.
Budget Breakdown
| Item | (Feb-April) | (May-June) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Venues for Hackathon per Quarter | $3,000 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| Food(bitings during the hackathon) for the 5 countries we touch per Quarter | $2,500 | $2,500 | $5,000 |
| Swag( Stickers, Hoodies, T-shirts, Water bottles) covering Nigeria,Kenya,Uganda,Ghana and South Africa per Quarter | $5,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| Prizes For Hackathon Winners | $5,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| A total of 3 developer relations 1 for Kenya,Nigeria and Uganda. | $9,000 | $6,000 | $15,000 |
| Monthly Dev workshops (A total of 9 Dev meet- workshops per quarter) for the whole region | $10,000 | $7,000 | $17,000 |
Total $63,000
Success Metrics:
- 5+ monthly developer workshops across the countries we touch.
- Developing a comprehensive Web3 Skills Curriculum.
- 2 hackathons are organized for the H1 period.
- 50+ developers signing up for the hackathon per quarter.
- 10+ deployed apps.
- 10+ submitted hackathon projects.
- Reaching 50+ developers per country per quarter.
Focus Area 3: Market Awareness and Community Growth
Total Budget - $91,300
We’ve witnessed the growing influence of the Celo community across Africa, and we’re eager to extend our commitment to promote the adoption of Celo and MiniPay throughout the continent. We’ll build a strong local Celo community through content creation, social media engagement, and hosting local events and university meet-ups/college mixers.
Marketing & Events Budget:
| Item | (Feb-April) | (May-June) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local event sponsorships like (ATS ,Decentralized Intelligence Summit, Kenya Blockchain and Crypto Conference etc) | $3,000 | $12,000 | $15,000 |
| Content (writer, video content) to drive engagement | $3,000 | $2,000 | $5,000 |
| Part-time designer | $900 | $600 | $1,800 |
Community Growth Budget:
| Item | (Feb-April) | (May-June) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Community Managers across Ghana,Kenya,South Africa,Uganda and Nigeria to drive social engagement | $12,000 | $8,000 | $20,000 |
| A total of 5 College Leads 1 per country | $15,000 | $10,000 | $25,000 |
| 1 Quarterly Community meet-up per country eg. Blockchain Happy hour in Kampala, Celo Local in Nairobi | $6,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| 3 College mixers/ meet-ups per quarter in Kenya,Nigeria,South Africa,Uganda and Ghana | $7,300 | $5,200 | $12,500 |
Success Metrics:
- Host 9+ Twitter Spaces monthly.
- Achieve 20,000+ engagements and 250,000+ impressions through PR.
- Sponsor 3+ Tech events in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and South Africa.
- Bringing 50pc of college students to the build with Celo hackathon.
- Organize 20+ college mixers to engage computer science majors for the entire H1 period
- Attract 400+ participants to college mixers/university events.
- 100+ followers on social media per month.
Transparency:
To ensure transparency and accountability which is the ethos that guides Web3 and DAOs to be more specific. We will have 4 multi-sig holders from all the three different countries we touch and an operations Manager to oversee the overall operations of the DAO.
- Multi-Sig holder and Operations Lead payment ($37,500)
- Tooling, legal and miscellaneous ($5,000 )
- Buffer ($16,500)
Buffer
This budget allocation has been created in case of a delay in governance, which may lead to the late deployment of funds necessary for Celo Africa DAO to run. It is set to cover two weeks of operations for the month of July and has been calculated as a third of the budget required for July.
Budget
Below is a breakdown of the Celo Africa budget per category. A more detailed breakdown with estimation and lead per item can be found in this worksheet.
Payment Terms
We propose to receive the budget in two installments: the Q1 budget at the start of the proposal and the Q2 budget at the end of April after submitting a Q1 progress report on the Celo Forum.
| Focus Area | Total Budget Q1 | Total Budget Q2(May-June) | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus Area 1(Incubator program) | $27,000 | $8,000 | $35,000 |
| Focus Area 2(Dev talent) | $34,500 | $28,500 | $63,000 |
| Focus Area 3(Community growth) | $47,500 | $43,800 | $91,300 |
| Buffer (Incase of Delays) | $0 | $16,500 | $16,500 |
| Tooling and legal | $2,500 | $2,500 | $5000 |
| Multi-Sig | $22,500 | $15000 | $37,500 |
| Total | $134,000 | $114,300 | $248,300 |
Any funds left on July 31st will be returned to the Celo Community Treasury
Team Structure & Mutli-Sig
Updates
Aliu Musa, Noah Baalessanvu, Khadeejah Amusat have stepped down as Multisig Signers and have been replaced by Daniel Kimotho, Umar Sebyala and Cynthia Kamau.
The following four people will manage the Celo Africa DAO multisig and coordination of the resources.
-
Daniel Kimotho - Incubator Program Lead.
-
Cynthia Kamau - Developer Relations Lead.
-
Chimezie Chuta - Market Awareness
-
Umar Sebyala - Community Growth
Conclusion
We’ve already established significant momentum in Africa, as evidenced by the vibrant developer community and passionate enthusiasts who have collaboratively championed the adoption of Web 3 and sparked impressive projects like Clixpesa, and Hurupay among many others. Once more, we seek your support to further strengthen our presence in the African continent, where the potential for Web 3 is exceptionally promising.
Resources
Celo Africa Ecosystem Reports
Celo Africa on Twitter Ecosystems
Celo Africa on Telegram Ecosystems
