Introduction:
As we conclude a dynamic year, the Celo Africa DAO is excited to highlight the impact, progress, and insights achieved in our mission to support Celo’s expansion across the continent. Guided by transparency and community-driven initiatives, we embarked on a transformative journey for Africa from May to December.
Budget and Spending
The proposal was put to community voting on February 22, 2023, and passed with over 65,447,195 CELO staked by individuals for the proposal and DAO fund request of 550,000 CELO valued at about $428,000 when 1 CELO was equivalent to $0.7. Actual funds received after the proposal was passed, was about $294,512.37 due to the subsequent set-in of the bear market that saw the CELO price down to about $0.47. The funds were strategically allocated to key focus areas, including Community Education, University Outreach, Market Awareness, and Brand Positioning.
Runway Assessment
The Initial runway was anticipated to sustain us until November 2023. However, through strategic and resourceful utilization of the funds, we have effectively extended the runway, allowing us to stretch its impact until January - February 2024.
Takeaways:
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Celo Price Fluctuation : When we initially requested a budget of 550,000 CELO, it was valued at $0.7 per CELO, making the total equivalent to $428,000. Unfortunately, by the time we received the funds, the price of Celo had decreased to $0.47. As a result, the actual amount we obtained in the DAO treasury was $294,512.37, reflecting the impact of the fluctuating value of Celo on the allocated budget.
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request.network. Request Network simplified and streamlined the process of managing and monitoring invoices, making it more efficient to track expenses.
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Snapshot: This guaranteed transparency for the DAO in its involvement in all events, workshops, and sponsorships conducted by Celo Africa DAO.
Community, Event Organization and Celo Representation
- KPI: Attendance Count to In-person and Online events = More than 10,000 Unique Participants from CodeJams, University Events and Celo Local Sponsored Events.
- KPI: Events Hosted: Represented, Organized, and Hosted over 38 events across Africa i.e. local community developer code jams, and university events, partnered with major top-tier events, and side events.
- KPI: Projects that joined the Celo Camp: More than 20 Projects joined the Camp.
- KPI: Hackathon Participation: More than 20 teams participating in ecosystem hackathons, i.e. BWC-Series and DAO hackathon Partnerships outside the ecosystem.
- KPI: Twitter Spaces: Organized and held more than 25 Twitter Spaces, reaching a total of 5000 organic participants and gaining more than 4000 social media followers, more than 500,000 engagements, and over 1,000,000 impressions.
- KPI: Social Media Growth: More than 4000 across Celo Nigeria, Celo Kenya and Celo Uganda
- KPI: Wallet Downloads: More than 2000 Wallet downloads across all the ecosystems.
- KPI: Clubs Activated: Activated over 15 university clubs across the University Ecosystem.
Some of the Highlights Include:
- Facilitated a highly effective MiniPay workshop in Nigeria with a focus on developing the Ambassador program and go-to-market strategies in anticipation of the launch of MiniPay in the African market. This workshop not only yielded impressive outcomes but also displayed an exceptional level of success in several aspects.
- Supported HaloFi in holding Crypto Fridays in Nigeria, a playground for exploring the incredible innovations in Web3.
- Coordinated the MiniPay CodeJams in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, fostering the uptake of MiniPay and providing users with a practical, hands-on opportunity to develop on the MiniPay platform.
- Successful launch of the Celo Africa DAO community Hashnode that encourages the Community to create How-to articles and Step-by-step articles on how to build on Celo.
- Supported HaloFi in their launch of HaloFi Nigeria in partnership with Good Dollar, Bitmama, Opera and Fonbnk.
- Supported HaloFi in hosting their in-person UX workshop for their product HaloFi Save.
- Coordinated and facilitated the MiniPay Workshop at EthSafari 2023 which sought to onboard users to MiniPay.
Main takeaways - Community events and Celo Representation:
- The DAO’s proactive efforts to establish a robust framework for awareness, adoption, and collaboration have been instrumental in contributing to Celo’s enduring success in Africa.
Reports from the previous quarters:
- [Report] Celo Africa DAO Report (May, June, July)
- [Report] Celo Africa DAO (August, September, October 2023)
Celo Africa DAO 2023 Program Highlights:
Through the DAO we launched and supported multiple initiatives through sponsorships and participation, below are some of the highlights.:
Decentralized Intelligence Summit 2023
In pursuit of our third focus area, dedicated to cultivating market awareness and establishing brand positioning through content distribution, we initiated sponsorship of The Decentralized Intelligence: A Web3 & AI Summit. This event served as a convergence point for over 5000 industry experts specializing in blockchain, Web3, and artificial intelligence.
Celo At EthAccra 2023
EthAccra 2023 convened developers, researchers, and “BUIDLers” for learning, hacking, engaging in discussions, and commemorating the prospective trajectory of decentralization. The DAO participated in EthAccra as a sponsor. Drawing over 500 attendees and over 95 participants from across the region took part in the hackathon, building innovative projects on a variety of themes, including DeFi, social impact, and infrastructure.
Celo Local At EthSafari
Celo Local At EthSafari took center stage at EthSafari 2023 in Nairobi, offering a distinctive platform for the Web3 community to expand their insights, foster meaningful connections, and collaboratively envision the future of blockchain technology. The DAO took center stage in sponsoring the side event at the EthSafari, Our key partners such as HaloFi, FonBnk, and MiniPay played a pivotal role, delivering insightful keynotes and contributing to a panel discussion on scaling Web3 in the African context.
OSCA Festival 2023
The Open Source Community Africa Festival 2023 (OSCA Fest 2023) was a massive gathering of developers, designers, and tech enthusiasts across Africa, held in June 2023. It was organized by the Open Source Community Africa (OSCA), and supported by the Celo Africa DAO as key sponsors. The festival attracted over 5,000 attendees from all over Africa and beyond.
The DAO At ReFi Kenya 2023
ReFi Kenya brought together over 1,000 attendees from all over Kenya and beyond. The DAO also participated as a sponsor for the event and featured a keynote about the Celo Ecosystem.
EthSafari Kilifi
ETHSafari Kilifi convened over 2,000 developers, blockchain enthusiasts, and forward-thinking venture capitalists from Africa and globally. The event served as a platform for learning, hacking, discussing, and celebrating the Web3 ecosystem. The conference part sponsored by the Celo Africa DAO attracted over 2,000 participants, onboarded more than 400 users to Celo, witnessed a surge in MiniPay downloads to over 150, and successfully onboarded more than 5 partners into the regional alliance.
Africa’s Talking Summit
During Africa’s Talking Summit, the DAO successfully orchestrated a significant Minipay product showcase and workshop. This event included an overview of Celo and Minipay, emphasizing their distinctive features. Additionally, a workshop delved into the practical application of USSD technology in Minipay platform development, offering attendees valuable insights and actionable knowledge. The summit drew in over 500 participants, onboarded more than 50 developers to Celo, and saw more than 10 developers signing up for the Build With MiniPay Hackathon.
Kampala Blockchain Developer Festival in Uganda
Kampala Blockchain Dev Fest provided an exceptional platform for us to engage with the vibrant blockchain community in Kampala and share the benefits and opportunities the Celo blockchain offers. We had an opportunity to participate as panelists, held a side-event workshop, and presentations, and participated in a hackathon, which was well-received by the attendees. Through the DAO efforts, our participation in the hackathon yielded remarkable results with over 3 teams winning the hackathon. We onboarded over 300 participants to the ecosystem and over 40 developers.
Reflection of 2023 and Outlook of 2024
As we reflect on the achievements of 2023, the Celo Africa DAO expresses sincere gratitude to the community, contributors, and partners who have been pivotal to our success. 2023 was truly a year of remarkable growth and adaptation for the DAO. We witnessed increased adoption, impactful initiatives, and a vibrant community around our shared vision for a more inclusive and prosperous Africa. As we stand on the precipice of 2024, it’s time to reflect on our journey, celebrate our achievements, and chart the path forward with renewed ambition and focus.
Reflections on 2023:
- Community Growth: Our community has flourished, with active engagement across social media channels like Telegram, Twitter (X), Discord, and Slack. Local meetups, CodeJams, and University events have fostered collaboration and strengthened connections in the ecosystem.
- Adoption and Usage: Celo adoption has gained momentum across Africa, with developers, individuals and businesses leveraging Celo to build awesome dApps, and leverage cUSD for everyday transactions, remittances, and participation in the DeFi ecosystem.
- Impactful Initiatives: We’ve launched and supported initiatives that address critical needs demonstrating the power of blockchain for social good.
- Governance and Transparency: We’ve implemented robust governance mechanisms, ensuring transparency and community-driven decision-making. Regular DAOship proposals and open communication have fostered trust and engagement.
- Africa requires increased support to engage a broader audience of developers and enthusiasts who hold the potential to become future founders.
- The developer community exhibits significant curiosity about the practical, real-world applications of blockchain technology.
Challenges and Opportunities:
- Resource Limitations: Limited resources within local communities, particularly evident in local universities that lack the necessary tools for an effective learning process.
- Sustainability and Scalability: Ensuring the long-term sustainability of the DAO and its initiatives requires diversifying funding streams.
- Education and Awareness: Building awareness and understanding of Celo and blockchain technology is essential for mass adoption. We need to develop culturally relevant educational resources and partnerships with local institutions.
- Broader Outreach: Reaching a broad audience of developers residing outside major cities proves to be a costly endeavor.
Outlook for 2024:
- Prioritizing Local Adoption: We will focus on initiatives that drive local adoption, such as supporting community-led projects, building partnerships with local businesses, and developing region-specific use cases for Celo.
- Incubator Program: Launching a regional incubator program to assist and empower early-stage founders and builders in the African ecosystem, facilitating the development of products with tangible real-world applications.
- Investing in Education: We will ramp up our educational efforts, creating localized learning materials, conducting workshops, and collaborating with educational institutions to bridge the knowledge gap.
- Expanding the DeFi Ecosystem: We will foster the development of DeFi applications and use cases, to create more opportunities for financial inclusion.
- Extending commitment to REFI Ecosystem: With Celo as the home of Regenerative finance (ReFi), the DAO, guided by Celo’s mission, will actively work to foster a more regenerative economy within Africa increasing focus and commitment to the refi ecosystem
- Strengthening Governance and Partnerships: We will continuously refine our governance processes, enhance transparency, and build strategic partnerships with other DAOs, blockchain projects, and development organizations to amplify our impact.
Conclusion:
2024 brings a wave of exciting possibilities for the DAO. By building upon our accomplishments, addressing challenges head-on, and grasping emerging opportunities, we can further empower the African continent and shape a future where blockchain technology unlocks new avenues for financial inclusion, social good, and shared prosperity. We invite our entire community to join us on this journey, co-create solutions and collectively write the next chapter of Celo Africa’s impact story.
Useful Links:
Slack: Join our Celo Africa Dao Slack - (Note the link expires in 29 days from 15/12/2023)
Twitter: Celo Uganda || Celo Kenya || Celo Nigeria
Telegram: Celo Kenya || Celo Nigeria