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KEVIN IMANI, NEAR KENYA REGIONAL HUB LEAD, ON THEIR US$ 50,000 GRANTS FOR
HIGH-QUALITY WEB3 PROJECTS

BLOCKCHAIN TECH HAS BEEN HAVING A MOMENT FOR A WHILE NOW, AND PRETTY SOON WEB
3.0 WILL BECOME THE NEW DECENTRALIZED NORMAL. KEVIN IMANI, NEAR KENYA LEAD AND
CEO OF SANKORE 2.0, TALKS ABOUT THE WORK THE NEAR KENYA REGIONAL HUB DOES TO
SUPPORT THE BUILDING OF WEB3 PROJECTS ON NEAR PROTOCOL TO GROW THE BLOCKCHAIN
ECOSYSTEM.

Sandra Musonge

Thu Dec 22 2022

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The emergence of blockchain was bound to disrupt the whole tech industry, given
that it has facilitated the decentralization of the World Wide Web. With
blockchain at its very foundation, Web 3.0 provides an open field for creating,
controlling, and owning digital assets through permissionless, peer-to-peer
transactions.

This is obviously going to be a game-changer. You can expect almost every
industry sector, from energy, technology, and healthcare, to media, to utilize
web 3.0 blockchain tech in their day-to-day processes in the next ten years or
so. So if you haven’t gotten on the bandwagon, I suggest you strap yourself in.

We shared an interesting conversation with Kevin Imani, NEAR Kenya Lead and CEO
of Sankore 2.0, a blockchain hub supporting developers building Web3 projects on
NEAR Protocol. Below, he gives his insight on the future of blockchain tech and
Web 3.0 in Africa and the impact of NEAR Kenya since its inception. 

Tell us about the work NEAR Kenya does.
It’s an extension of what the existing NEAR ecosystem is doing, but specifically
in Africa. We started thinking about how to implement and involve larger
communities within Africa in the blockchain world. Given that we had a good
relationship with the NEAR foundation, it was an opportunity for us to work with
them and start thinking about building a model for that starting off in Kenya.
Very quickly, we witnessed organic growth and expanded into over 10 countries.
And so the company is now predominantly doing that - focusing on building an
ecosystem for Web 3.0 projects. Think of it as the entry point of Web3 talent. 

You are very accomplished. How and when did you figure out your passion and
purpose? Most of us struggle with that. 

Thank you, that’s very kind. 

I believe that purpose is never static - rather, always evolving. If we adopt
that perspective, we will find that every step, achievement, and mistake
contributes to the constant pursuit of purpose. Making mistakes is also an
important part of it because anything worth doing is likely to have many hurdles
and failures along the way. This can often mean the difference between progress
and stagnation in the continuous pursuit of purpose.

I don’t think there was a specific point when I figured it out. It was more of a
quick rush to refine my interest and not be too anxious to verbalize the kinds
of ventures I wanted to get into. I think I also had a relatively good network
of people in the private and public sectors and both within blockchain and
outside of it who helped me in that pursuit.

You founded Sankore 2.0 last year to help build Open Web and Web3 solutions in
Africa. What did you intend to achieve? 

Indeed, it was last year. Isn’t that crazy? (laughs)

When I started it, I was hoping to accomplish two things: 

First is the historical narrative that we’ve grown to know it represents - an
attachment to its values, which is the primary objective. Sankore is mainly
based on the values we want to have and the framework of our story. 

During the 16th century, Sankore was a mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, run by Mansa
Musa, who was the emperor at the time and known to have the most advanced
mathematics, science, technology, literature, and medicine. There was an
incredibly high prestige of knowledge production and sharing in Sankore, and it
was the most advanced learning center at the time. People knew that if you
wanted to figure out where the future was going, you had to go to Sankore. 

Those values were exciting to me, and I wanted to echo them in today’s 21st
century through Sankore 2.0. I knew that I wanted to focus on tech and thought
blockchain is currently one of the most innovative technologies. 

Our focus is on two core objectives:

 

 * Striving to be a key entry point for Web3 talent in Africa

 * We also aim to have a thriving Web3 ecosystem - that includes enabling the
   community to have the support and resources to produce high-quality projects.

Secondly, we wanted to become the reference point of blockchain innovation
regardless of the industry, whether it is tokenisation, verification, education,
or anything else. 

How has the journey grown the company during this period?

The company has grown really fast. I would even argue that it was way too fast.
However, the cool thing about that is the story was and is being sold before we
even produced anything. A lot of people both externally and internally believed
in our story and wanted to follow our journey and contribute because of it.    

Who or what was instrumental in the NEAR Foundation - Sankore 2.0 collaboration
to form the NEAR Kenya regional hub? 

We cannot fail to mention Illia and Marieke, the Co-Founders, for choosing to
partner with Sankore 2.0, and fully supporting the NEAR Kenya regional hub. They
understood the necessity to expand and have a regional presence of the NEAR
ecosystem in order to get mass adoption. Therefore, they entrusted our team with
executing the mandate of NEAR Protocol, on the continent. That support was
significant and we do not take that for granted. 

Our team and our partners have been essential to our success as well. We would
not be able to build such a formidable network without them. This is the network
that allows us to catalyze such a thriving Web3 ecosystem all across Africa.



What does this partnership mean for developers in the African region?

The developers are going to be part of a network of contributors to blockchain
ecosystems. NEAR Kenya and the NEAR Foundation were very intentional about
building a builders’ market in Africa. You can see that through the support
systems and networks they’ve put in place for that specifically for developers.
It was very important for them to provide developers with an incredibly
attractive, easy-to-use, and user-friendly UI/UX to code, which the NEAR
blockchain has. It provides an actual platform where they can have stuff done
because there are opportunities to join our ecosystems very easily. 

NEAR protocol is also an opportunity to increase the developers’ attention,
meaning how long will developers stay in the ecosystem? Developers stay only
when there are reasons to.  The way NEAR is set up is that it is intentional
about that, and our blockchain is a reflection of it. We’re looking to
constantly optimize the experience for developers. 

Who are your connections across Africa and how impactful have these connections
been for NEAR Kenya? 

We have been fortunate enough to partner with connections across all industries
and Governments in Africa. Some of these partnerships are; UABA in Zambia,
ReitFast in Egypt, AfroValley in Ethiopia, BiotLabs in Nigeria, ABI in Rwanda,
and CV Labs in South Africa. 

We have also positioned ourselves as a regional hub across the African
continent, partnering with several countries in Africa such as South Africa,
Zambia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and
Tunisia. For these countries, it was predominantly either an existing project or
a company that wanted to build on NEAR for two reasons:

 

 * They noticed that building on NEAR was an attractive option because of the
   opportunities you can get in scaling and the support you can get financially,
   technologically, or with legal and marketing. 

 * They were already building on NEAR, heard about NEAR Kenya, and were curious
   about it and the support they offer to project owners. So they approached us
   with an interest in collaborating, building and supporting. 

These partnerships help support the agenda we have as a blockchain community,
which is to accelerate blockchain innovation and talent development across the
African continent. We are always open to partnering with accelerators and
incubators whose vision aligns with ours.

NEAR Kenya offers grant funding for blockchain projects in Africa like UTU,
HealthGo and Ledja. Tell us about these grants you offer for Web3 projects. 

The grants have given essential support to projects and builders, as we develop
a thriving Web3 ecosystem - that includes enabling the community to have the
support and resources to produce high-quality projects that allow the ecosystem
to grow. 

We have internal objectives we desire to achieve when disbursing these grants,
and a set of criteria is employed as well when qualifying applicants. An
overview of these initial stages is as follows:

 

 * Eligibility check 

 * Pre-screening check 

 * Business review & Interview 

 * Technical review 

 * Grant Team approval

A grantee stands to receive up to 50,000 USD depending on the stage of
development the project is at and the type of project too. This allowed us to
allocate these funds faster, build trust and credibility faster, and get an
opportunity to grow our footprint in Africa. 

After a grant applicant has been onboarded, they will also receive hands-on
support from our team, and an assigned expert will assist them throughout. There
are also set milestones that are monitored by the expert along the way. These
are meant to be achieved at set times during the project development stage and
after completion too.

What does that process look like for anyone with a project who is interested in
applying?

This process has pretty essential stages, with guidance available on the NEAR
Kenya site. The guide gives directions on how and where to start. 

How do we ensure that the process is smooth for every applicant and that the
project in question is relevant? We check for these things:

 

 * There’s a quick turnaround time from the application time.

 * There is a thorough evaluation of each application/project.

 * The submitted project is hand in hand with NEAR Foundation. It is, however,
   important to us that these projects offer solutions that favour the African
   community.

This time of the year tends to inspire a reflective look back. What would you
say has been the most significant moment / or highlight for you, while building
the NEAR Kenya regional hub this year?

This year has been pivotal to our growth, and as such, there have been many
moments we can highlight.

Perhaps the most significant ones have been when engaging with the team, the
community of NEAR Protocol founders, builders, and practitioners from all around
the world - Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, and even as far as Portugal where we were
for NEARCON. We are part of a really incredible community here at NEAR Protocol,
which is decentralized and largely remote-based. It has therefore been great to
have those moments of building together, in person.

What are some of the biggest opportunities for blockchain innovation in Africa?

 * First, you have to think about the emerging and urgent trends happening in
   the world and what blockchain tech is going to do to solve the problems we
   have, given that it is one of the most innovative techs we have. Thus,
   conscious and thoughtful education will always be integral. 

 * Also, climate change is an attractive topic. We should be looking at
   nature-based problems, solutions, and initiatives to see how we can mitigate
   climate change with what blockchain technology is actually building. Think of
   regenerative finance, which means looking at new ways to either receive or
   allocate funds in a greener way that’s regenerative and can come back to you.
   I think that’s something that will be a huge driver in the next 10-15 years.
   Though I may be biased because we’re kind of already doing that with Open
   Forest Protocol. (laughs)

If you had a crystal ball, what do you think will bring the biggest change or
disruption in the blockchain industry in 2023?

The nature of blockchain means that there is constant change and exploration of
new use cases on a stable technology. We are a long way from realizing its full
potential, so the biggest change or disruption is now only as far away as the
creative solutions we can think of to solve everyday challenges. The answer
literally lies within us, the solutions are in our hands.

Regarding the national-level implementation of certain industries that want to
use blockchain tech, this can only occur when the conversation happens from the
top. I think African countries will be the driver to implement regulatory
frameworks where problems can be addressed in a rapid, scalable, and effective
way and the entire world will follow that as an example.

Parting shot?

We’re building and optimizing what NEAR is doing in Africa. There’s a lot of
work to be done and we’re a long way from realizing the potential of blockchain
tech and the work we do. I’m excited about people coming with different ways of
thinking when looking at the future and I really want us as Africans to be those
drivers of change. 

If we can start building these different ventures and hold these respective
values indigenous to us, there’s no reason why we can’t have the most thriving
venture capital funds on earth through tech in Africa. Because why would we ask
for money from outside for problems that we want to solve within? I want to
encourage people to start thinking that way because now we can have
conversations about what regenerative finance looks like for us in Africa. 

entrepreneurship
inspiration

Written by

Sandra Musonge

Sandra Musonge is a part-time writer at Fuzu with over five years of experience
under her belt, helping numerous B2B and B2C clients with their content needs.
She writes to inspire and not just to inform. Her educational background in
Biochemistry has given her a broad base from which to approach many topics. You
can find her enjoying nature or trying out new recipes when she isn't writing.

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