Hi sharing some thoughts on why Polkadot needs a Head Ambassador representative focused on pushing Polkadot interests in Africa.
01/01/2024 - 14/07/2024 Polkadot Search
This is also in an effort to try and persuade members of our community to re-think their voting stance on referendum 953: Head Ambassador Application: Bekka
Africa is the second largest continent with a population of 1.4 billion, numbers may not mean much with low discretionary income but on the bright side there is an abundant population of a growing middle class and young population who are tech savvy.
We haven’t had initiatives that support Polkadot expansion in Africa, I believe it was only last year when ex-Parity team met with one of the leads of an ETH event in Africa that he suggested they approach Polkadot community to request to organise a conference in Africa.
Polkadot has had a strong presence in Europe and continuously funded efforts in Asia and LATAM, Parity had Parity Asia and LATAM representatives at some point. We’ve even seen the recent Global Jam Tour cover different regions and missing Africa.
The old ambassador program had a high number of candidate ambassadors from some African states but due to lack of support and leadership the program was pretty much redundant.
As a result Polkadot community and ecosystem growth in Africa further deteriorated. We are usually absent in various key markets and Web3 related activities across the continent for several years.
We have few developers building projects or even applying through the Web3 Foundation grants program. Polkadot OpenGov participation is also low or pretty much non-existent.
Africa is one of the places where there is need and demand to build better infrastructure to enable people access various services. Polkadot is designed generally to improve efficiency and guarantee users on the internet sovereignty over their data.
We’ve seen various talks from key people in the space seeking for places where blockchain has actual product market fit apart from the speculative use which is also common in Africa. (screenshots from Amanda and Gbaci X accounts)
I am aware we’ve probably had 3 referenda with a high ask passed by Kusama/Polkadot treasury since last year 2023 proposed by members residing in Africa but still this doesn’t solve the issue of creating a sustainable and impactful community and partnerships.
This is why I feel voting for a dedicated HA is the right step where we can have contributors empowered to strategize and increase Polkadot representation to help with awareness, growth and marketing efforts.
HA will also improve decisions made at a higher level by making it more inclusive and be the link for better communication and engagement.
There is a need for better allocation of resources, budgeting and reporting.
A number of interested community members/agents already exist but need assistance and better coordination of efforts.
I don’t know but perhaps people are not aware that other tech companies and blockchain ecosystems have strong presence in the continent.
Each entity has developed their own approach for Africa to enable them achieve their agendas.
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Bitcoin influence and community continue to support various efforts in the continent for several years.
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Binance has had massive success with their CEX and P2P platform that’s easily accessible on mobile.
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Cardano through IOHK began with institutional and government partnerships in some countries not sure how effective this strategy was but their other arms Adaverse and Emurgo Africa went on to partner with private sector and local communities which seems quite promising as the projects are alive and continue to grow.
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Hedera Hashgraph through Hedera Foundation has been keenly focusing on partnering and funding entities in Africa that align with their agendas like Standard Bank largest bank in Africa developing identity solution, Flutterwave highest valued fintech on the continent will integrate USDC through Hedera into their existing model among others.
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ICP Hubs - Present in East Africa as ICP Kushite, West Africa as ICP Sahara as well as in South Africa as Mzansi Web3 building communities from scratch through regular meetups, campus tours and web3 clubs events, educating users as well as developers to build on ICP and representing ICP at tech and government forums.
We have Ethereum community with Borderless Initiative and yearly ETHSafari conference, Celo blockchain Celo AfricaDAO, Starknet Africa, Chainlink etc
BASE, Avax and Solana have also began to ramp up activities with Onchain Summer initiative, AVAX DAO and Solana Superteam. I could go on and on with examples.
I believe Polkadot in Africa needs a dedicated individual to help initiate and streamline efforts.
I would further argue that this is probably the first instance someone from the African community has come forward to clearly try and help.
To reject such a proposal we then need to be able to provide an alternative to address these issues. I believe this is the right time for this as the Polkadot ambassador program is on a path to bring change. It’s important as we vote we try to put into consideration our past missteps and areas which need attention and improvement.
There is no direct benefit for me in supporting this candidacy other than wanting to see a form of organised intentional effort, greater awareness and adoption of Polkadot in the world.
Bekka is known in the African community both in Polkadot and beyond, she is a developer and a PBA alumni and has been volunteering to the best of her ability to help the network as well as the community.