Ubuntu_dApps: Decentralized Business Empowerment

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Alfred Opuni Amponsah

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

5

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Empower SMEs with cooperative smart contract lending groups on Cardano blockchain, providing fair & transparent access to funding, catalyzing economic growth

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Our open-source approach for this project on the Cardano Blockchain involves leveraging the Plutus Playgroud (Marlowe.iohk.io) robust smart contract capabilities, enabling the creation of transparent and auditable lending protocols. By publishing our codebase on public repositories, such as GitHub, we facilitate peer review and community-driven enhancements, ensuring the integrity and security of our financial infrastructure. Additionally, through open communication channels, such as forums and developer communities, we foster collaboration and knowledge sharing, empowering individuals to customize and optimize our solution to meet the unique needs of SMEs worldwide. This commitment to openness and innovation not only strengthens trust and credibility but also accelerates the pace of technological advancement, driving the adoption of decentralized finance as a catalyst for socioeconomic empowerment. Through open-source development, we aim to democratize access to financial services, promote interoperability, and empower communities to build resilient and inclusive economies on the Cardano platform.

[METADATA] SDG rating

Our approach is completely consistent with various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 1 (No Poverty), Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), Goal 5 (Gender Equality), Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure). By facilitating access to affordable loans for SMEs, particularly those in marginalized regions, we directly contribute to SDG 1 by reducing poverty and increasing economic inclusion. Furthermore, our transparent and inclusive strategy promotes women entrepreneurs, furthering SDG 5 by fostering gender equality and maximizing their economic potential.

Furthermore, our initiative promotes economic growth and adequate employment prospects in accordance with SDG 8, by allowing SMEs to expand their operations, generate jobs, and stimulate local economies. Furthermore, our concentration on blockchain technology encourages innovation and infrastructure development, which supports SDG 9's goal of creating resilient and sustainable industrial ecosystems. By tackling these interrelated SDGs holistically, our effort aims to build a more fair and prosperous future for all, where no one falls behind and everyone has the chance to succeed.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Introduction

In today's rapid economic environment, small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) are critical to generating innovation, creating jobs, and supporting economic growth. However, access to financial finance remains a substantial barrier for many informal businesses, limiting their ability to remain viable and expand. Our proposal aims to solve this important issue by leveraging the potential of the Cardano blockchain, to provide fair and inclusive access to capital for SMEs.

Problem Definition

Financial institutions frequently ignore informal firms owing to a lack of collateral, credit history, and documentation. This exclusionary strategy stifles the potential of several businesses and impedes economic growth in underprivileged regions. Furthermore, present lending processes are characterized by inefficiency, high processing costs, and opaque conditions, increasing SMEs' financial marginalization.

Summary Solution

Our proposed solution focus on forming cooperative groups of three, five, or seven SMEs/Entrepreneurs and utilizing smart contract deployed on the Cardano blockchain to get access to credit. By combining their resources and reputation, these groups mitigate individual risk and improve creditworthiness, enhancing their chances of obtaining finance. Loan parameters, such as interest rates, repayment dates, and collateral requirements or not, are encoded using transparent and irreversible smart contracts to ensure fairness and accountability for all parties involved.

Solution in Details

The blockchain provides the platform for Africa’s informal sector to put its deep-rooted traditional cooperative system used to provide credit to informal businesses. It is public knowledge that the Cardano blockchain has Africa as part of its strategic goal. To fully explore the potential of Africa’s market share, we cannot afford to ignore the informal sector in Africa. 

The informal sector is the engine for economic growth and employs 90% of youths in Africa, yet the development agenda in Africa and from multilateral development partners seems to ignore the very engine of economic growth in Africa. This proposal seeks to provide financial inclusion by providing credit to businesses in the informal sector. It is established that the development of the informal sector is a great accelerator towards solving critical socio-economic problems, including Poverty, hunger, and improving the standard of living among others. Among the challenges faced by the informal sector, financing businesses or access to credit is a huge problem (Lader, 1996). Existing credit facilities and banks do not have financial products for businesses in the informal sector. This is due to the inability of the sector to document its activity or provide easy identification for its players as well as the inability to raise the needed collateral to secure loans or credit from banks, ,microfinance and financial institutions. Financial institutions with the formal sector structure their product to meet the needs of large corporations. 

There is also element of discrimination with the credit constraints which depends on gender disparity gap. Abor and Biekpe (2006) identified that female-owned businesses in the informal sector are relatively small and less likely to employ debt finance. This is because, the necessary collateral to qualify for debt finance is not owned in their names and females are unable to penetrate informal financial network which affects their ability to gain useful information and source of capital (Greene et al, 1999). 

The solution proposes to use existing cooperative operations in Africa through smart contracts on dApp and provide secured and collateral-free credits at a rate of less than 2%. It is estimated that there are over 500 million cooperatives across Africa. As of 2016, South Africa had 132,000 cooperative movements and there are 25,000 cooperatives with 14,000,000 members in Kenya. Ghana equally has about 15,000 cooperative societies. It must be noted that several other cooperative movements operate with little or no records on them. Traditionally, the extended family in Africa forms the basic economic unit of communities. It must be noted that the extended family operates with a pool of resource, however, the extended family is a private entity as several other private families exists even within one community. Also, there exist co-operatives systems that pool resources on a mutual cooperative basis between several individuals from various families. For instance, members of a particular cooperative can undertake to weed individual farmlands in turns and on a weekly basis. It is how, traditionally, co-operatives organize various economic activities including farming.

The Cardano blockchain presents safety and reduces the risk associated with traditional cooperative operations. With smart contracts developed on a dApp which would code the traditional cooperative operation on the blockchain. Blockchain technology would present secure, transparent, and safe cooperation among individuals in the informal sector. 

Smart Contract Logic

SMEs/Individual businesses in the informal sector form various co-operatives to contribute flat fees into a pool fund (savings mobilization) on a weekly or monthly basis. This amount is then given to a one member of the co-operative group. This would continue until all members within a cooperative group receive funds from the pool fund when their turn is due to end the cycle of the pool fund. This practice has sustained informal businesses till present-day Africa and the sector remains the backbone of economies in Africa. In such a cooperative system little or no collateral is needed to receive funds from the cooperative pool but solely on mutual cooperation basis. The smart contract would provide an imprint of cooperative operation on the Cardano blockchain. The smart contract logic for this idea involves several key components to facilitate the cooperative lending process on the Cardano blockchain:

1. Formation of Cooperative Groups: Smart contracts will define the rules and criteria for SMEs to form cooperative groups comprising 3, 5, or 7 members. These criteria may include industry sector, geographical location, or business size to ensure cohesion and mutual support within the group.
2. Pooling of Resources: Once formed, the smart contract will facilitate the pooling of financial resources from each member of the cooperative group. Contributions would be in the form of ADA or DJED, as agreed upon by the group members.
3. Creditworthiness Assessment: The smart contract will assess the creditworthiness of the cooperative group based on factors such as the collective financial strength, business track record, and repayment history of its members. This assessment will determine the group's eligibility for accessing loans.
4. Loan Terms Encoding: Transparent and immutable smart contracts will encode loan terms, including interest rates, repayment schedules, and collateral requirements. These terms will be agreed upon by all parties involved and will be automatically enforced by the blockchain, ensuring fairness and accountability.
5. Disbursement and Repayment: Upon approval, the smart contract will disburse the loan amount to the cooperative group's designated wallet address. Repayment will be automated according to the predefined schedule, with payments distributed among group members based on their contribution percentages.
6. Governance and Dispute Resolution: Smart contracts may also include governance mechanisms for decision-making within the cooperative group and dispute resolution procedures in case of disagreements or breaches of contract.

Our Model

The Bottom-Up Approach is fundamentally compatible with our cooperative lending model on the Cardano blockchain, which promotes grassroots empowerment and community-driven solutions for financial inclusion. By delegating decision-making authority and initiative to SMEs, our strategy enables entrepreneurs to solve their own financial issues jointly. Cooperative groupings of three, five, or seven SMEs combine their resources and reputation, reducing individual risk and increasing creditworthiness via collaboration.

This decentralized strategy empowers SMEs to take control of their financial future by employing Cardano blockchain technology to get loans in a transparent and autonomous manner. Our solution promotes fairness, accountability, and confidence among participants by embedding loan conditions and governance processes into smart contracts, which eliminates the need for intermediaries. Furthermore, the Bottom-Up Approach promotes community cohesiveness and resilience as SMEs collaborate to overcome economic problems and capitalize on shared opportunities, eventually creating long-term growth and prosperity from the ground up.

Market Research

The informal sector is dominated by individual private businesses undertaking various economic activities that are vital to the economies of countries in Africa. Caprio & Honohan (2001) have argued that GDP growth rate could increase by 2% if credit flow to the private sector is doubled. It has been established that the level of economic activity is highly affected by any disruption to the supply of credit (Melzer, 2007). Currently, the informal sector is faced with existing credit constraints. According to the World Bank (2008), access to finance is described as absence of price and non-price barriers to the actual use of financial services (credit). In practice, documentation process alone provides difficulty to the informal sector and prevents them from accessing credit from existing financial institutions.

Naturally, at the going market rate, when demand for credit exceeds supply, borrowers will be prepared to pay higher rate to obtain credit but a high-interest rate will reduce the expected returns of lenders since higher interest rate can be a disincentive to repay the loan. What is more crucial is that a high-interest rate takes away the borrower's expected returns; therefore, borrowers are motivated to engage in high-risk ventures with high returns and low possibility of success. Therefore, there is a moral responsibility on lenders not to increase interest rates (price) in response to increasing demand for credit even though borrowers may want to pay higher prices (Domeher et al., 2014). However, high interest rate can induce more lenders to increase supply of credit and reduce interest rates in the long run.

Since the project would take off in Ghana, it is important to note that, in Ghana, small enterprises in the informal sector mainly source their credit from non-bank financial institutions. In addition, the nature of small enterprise borrowing in Ghana is interesting as Domeher et al., (2014) revealed that the amount of loan SMEs desire to borrow has a significant association with the average amount of cash generated per month by the business. Thus, the loan amount increases as the cash generated per month by the business increases and vice versa. This is good for lenders and the economy as a whole because SMEs only borrow as much as they can afford. To put it another way, SMEs that generate higher cash per month are relatively big businesses with bigger financial needs hence, mostly decide to apply for large amounts of credit.

This presents an opportunity to use smart-contract to imprint on the Cardano blockchain credit operations that have made informal businesses survive in the face of adversities and neglect from financial inclusion. 

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

The project seeks to deploy cooperative lending groups on the Cardano blockchain and will bring great benefits to the Cardano community:

• Enhanced Adoption and Utility: By providing a practical use case for the Cardano blockchain in facilitating transparent and inclusive financial services, our project will showcase the Cardano dApp's capabilities to a broader audience. This demonstration of real-world utility will attract more users, developers, and stakeholders to the Cardano ecosystem, driving adoption and ecosystem growth.
• Increased transaction volume and activity on the Cardano network.
• Diversification of applications and services, expanding the Cardano ecosystem beyond traditional use cases.
• Validation of Cardano's scalability, security, and interoperability features in a high-impact application domain.

• Community Empowerment and Engagement: Through our open-source approach and collaborative ethos, we will actively engage with the Cardano community, inviting feedback, contributions, and participation in the project's development and evolution. This inclusive approach fosters a sense of ownership and belonging among community members, driving collective efforts to innovate and advance the Cardano platform.
• Opportunity for community members to contribute to smart contract development, testing, and optimization.
• Knowledge sharing and skill development through participation in blockchain-based cooperative lending initiatives.
• Strengthened community cohesion and trust, laying the foundation for future collaborative endeavors and collective impact within the Cardano ecosystem.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] 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?

Our team's significant experience working directly with SMEs, delivering consultancy services and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) solutions, allows us to understand their issues and needs. With a track experience of doing research on SMEs for respectable organizations such as GIZ and other development partners, we bring significant insights and subject knowledge to the table. Furthermore, our diverse skill set, which includes developers, technical officers, and smart contract developers with strong backgrounds in software development, system security, and the Haskell programming language, ensures that we have the technical expertise to successfully execute this project on the Cardano blockchain. Combined with our deep understanding of SME dynamics and commitment to leveraging Cardano blockchain technology for financial inclusion, our team is well-positioned to deliver tangible results and drive meaningful impact, making us an ideal for Cardano Community that supports innovative solutions with high scalability and and real world impact.

This project is estimated to be executed in five (5) months thus 20 weeks. We seek funding to develop dApp and seed capital to provide credit to at most 25 informal businesses as first step of the project. Details of the project timeline;

Phase A: 1 – 3 Weeks

• Kick-off Meeting
• User Research
• User onboard & Outreach Strategic Plan
• Financial Regulatory Research and Compliance

Phase B: 4 – 10 Weeks

• Pilot implementation
• Gather data on credit facilitation
• Define smart contract parameters

Phase C: 11 – 14 Weeks

• Smart contract Logic
• Launch & Test-net for dApp & integration
• Monitoring & Evaluation Report

Phase D: 15 – 19 Weeks

• Marketing 
• Engagement with informal business
• Host a workshop to onboard informal business owners/players
• Completely Develop dApp

 

Phase E: 19 – 20 Weeks

• Deploy dApp
• Finalizing Project Completion & Report

KPIs

The project sought to use the following indicators to measure progress.

§  Number of Users

§  Number of Wallets Created (Yoroi/Nami/CC-Vault/Daedalus) for informal businesses

§  Number of Credit Applications

§  Number of Credit Facilitated and Approved

§  Number of Informal Businesses Paying Back Credit

§  Number of informal business owners/players attending the workshop

Documentation and Reporting: Keep complete records of all project activities, obstacles, and outcomes, as well as significant milestones. Create frequent progress updates and thorough project documentation per Cardano Community guideline that reflect the approaches employed, the impact made, and the implementation process. The outputs of the project will be shared using this documentation as a base. We are committed to monthly reporting, Github documentation, as well as sharing real world impact story in YouTube.

Workshops and Training Sessions: To disseminate the information and insights learned from the project, hold seminars, training sessions, and capacity-building initiatives. These seminars would be directed toward informal businesses, financial institutions, and pertinent parties. Sharing best practices, showcasing the advantages of the cooperative smart contract system, and offering advice on putting such projects into action should be the main priorities.

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

Project Planning and Preparation

Deliverables

1. Make a detailed analysis of the financial requirements and difficulties experienced by unlicensed enterprises in the target areas.
2. Establish and maintain partnerships with the appropriate parties, including financial institutions, local governments, and development groups.
3. Create a thorough project plan that includes the budget, the distribution of resources, and the timetable.

Output: comprehensive assessment of the issues and financial requirements posed by the target areas' informal sector firms.

Intended Outcome: Clearly stated project objectives, targets, and KPIs. Partnerships with the appropriate stakeholders would also be in place.

Design and Development of Cooperative Smart Contract System

Deliverables

1. Define the specifications and criteria for the cooperative smart contract system while taking into account the unique requirements of African informal companies.
2. Design and create the smart contract system with the help of blockchain engineers and experts to ensure scalability, security, and usability.
3. Test and iterate the system to address any bugs or issues, ensuring its reliability and functionality.

Output: With all the required features and functions, create a functional cooperative smart contract system.

Intended Outcome: Have a cooperative smart contract system that is reliable and safe that is prepared for integration with Atala Prism.

Pilot Implementation

Deliverables

1. Choose a target population of informal businesses to take part in the test phase.
2. Add the chosen companies to the network of cooperative smart contracts after confirming their legitimacy using Atala Prism.
3. Use smart contracts to streamline the loan application and approval process while taking into account details like loan amounts, interest rates, and collateral restrictions.
4. Distribute the authorized loans to the involved companies and monitor their development.

Output: Businesses from the informal sector would be added to the cooperative smart contract system, and identities would be confirmed using Atala Prism.

Intended Outcome: Loans would be disbursed to participating firms, loan repayment rates would be tracked, and the effects on company development and financial inclusion would be reported.

Scaling Up and Expansion

Deliverables

1. Create strategies for expanding the initiative to further regions of Africa and informal sector enterprises based on the pilot phase's success.
2. Using the information from the pilot phase, modify and improve the Atala Prism integration and the cooperative smart contract system.

Output: Thorough scaling-up plan designed, including methods for interacting with more informal businesses across various locations.

Intended Outcome: Project implementation broadened, more firms served, and financial inclusion significantly impacted.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Deliverables

1. Create a structure for monitoring and evaluating the project to determine its impact and efficiency.
2. Data on loan disbursements, repayment rates, business expansion, job creation, and overall financial inclusion will be gathered and examined.
3. Continually assess the project's performance in relation to the established KPIs and make the required modifications to enhance results.

Output: Provide a framework for monitoring and evaluating, along with methods for gathering and analyzing data.

Intended Outcome: A thorough assessment report including loan disbursements, repayment rates, business expansion, job creation, and overall financial inclusion.

Milestone 7 - Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination

Deliverables

1. Work together with key stakeholders to spread information and replicate the project's achievements in other African nations and areas.
2. Engage in knowledge exchange and networking constantly to advance the fields of blockchain technology and financial inclusion.

Output: Lessons learned, and best practices are shared through workshops, conferences, publications, and online platforms.

Intended Outcome: Increasing stakeholder awareness and understanding, and advancing the fields of blockchain technology and financial inclusion more broadly.

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

Jacques Bosch, Founer, Inversion - dApp Developers

Jacques has 3 decades of experience in building systems for human utilization. Our project has a good collaboration with Inversion (https://inversion.dev/#aboutus) for technical expertise. The team of developers has tremendous years of experience integrating traditional software systems with blockchain platforms; wallets, native tokens, NFT minting, and smart contracts. This level of technical expertise is important to facilitate the development and successful execution of the proposed dApp solution.

LinkedIn -

Alfred Opuni Amponsah - Team Lead

He is an entrepreneur and business advisor consultant professional with deep-rooted expertise in small and medium enterprise (SME) operations, specializing in consulting, alternative dispute resolution, and targeted research with global development partners including GIZ. This rich background in SME dynamics equips us to understand and innovate on the unique challenges faced by this sector. He has a demonstrable leadership character and has lead blockchain education projects in particular Working with Web3 project in Ghana and currently Decentralized Business Empowerment. He has graduated with an MSc from the University of Aberdeen, where he specialized in an interdisciplinary program covering molecular genetics, molecular epidemiology, and biostatistics, with a focused interest in diabetes research and oncology. This broad and comprehensive education prepares him to make significant contributions to both academic research and practical applications in the biomedical sciences.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfred-amponsah-opuni-a38985150/

Kingsley Mensah - Chief Technical Officer

He holds an MSc. in Computer Science & Technology. Founder of a web hosting company, Kingscel Technologies. He has proven skills in web designing, software development, computer networking and security, Javascript, Plutus, and CSS, and loves ideas for a free society. He was awarded the Star of Innovation Award in 2019 by the Hubei University of Technology (China). He also received the Young Achievers Award at the Pride of Africa Awards (Asia) 2020 by Appreciate Africa Network (Asia).

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kingsley-mensah/

Charles Fiifi Hagan - Accountant

He has a BSc (Hons) in Business Administration (Accounting). He is a Pastor and a business development consultant and has more than seven years of experience in Ministry Accounting and, and business development consulting. He is the CEO of Chems Consultants, a business consortium that aims to help startups. He has consulted for a few startups that are currently finding

their feet in the world of business.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/charles-hagan-77570312a

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Budget (ADA)

The budget is detailed and structured along with our activities. Below is the detail.  

Planning and Gathering of Requirements 

4250 ADA

 

Legal Registration & Incorporation 

4000 ADA

 

User Interface (UI) Design

10,215 ADA

 

Front-end Development & Research

Creating user interactions and integrating them with the Cardano blockchain network

20,550 ADA

 

Back-end Development & Research

Creating smart contracts, integrated Atala Prism Cooperative Credit system.

20,400 ADA

 

Testing and Quality Assurance

5,000 ADA

 

Smart Contract Deployment and Launch

5,000 ADA

 

Product Management

5,000 ADA

 

Marketing & Advertising

8,000 ADA

 

Informal Sector Education & Workshop

Undertake 1 educational and mini–Outreach Workshop for Onboarding

12,090 ADA

 

Team Fees

5417 ADA

 

Grand Total ………………………. 99,922 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The project idea of empowering SMEs with cooperative lending groups on Cardano blockchain, providing fair & transparent access to funding, catalyzing economic growth offers the Cardano ecosystem substantial value for money in the following ways:

• Enhanced Adoption and Utility of Cardano: By enabling SMEs to form cooperative lending groups using smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain, our project extends the real-world utility of Cardano. This initiative not only addresses critical financing needs of informal businesses but also drives broader adoption by demonstrating practical blockchain applications.

• Increased Transaction Volume and Network Activity: The implementation of our cooperative smart contract credit system significantly boosts Cardano’s transaction volume and network activity particularly in Africa. By facilitating financial transactions for unregistered firms, we enhance the sustainability, decentralization, and security of the Cardano network.

• Positive Reputation and Branding: Successfully executing this project positively impacts Africa's informal economy and bolsters Cardano’s reputation as a platform dedicated to social impact and financial inclusivity. This improved perception is crucial for attracting new users, developers, and investors, contributing to the ecosystem’s long-term development and sustainability.

• Catalyst for Innovation and Research: Our cooperative lending model encourages innovation and research within the Cardano community. It opens avenues for exploring new use cases and enhancements that leverage Cardano’s features, thereby driving ongoing technological advancement.

• Ecosystem Expansion and Partnerships: The project fosters the creation of strategic alliances and partnerships within the Cardano ecosystem, particularly with financial institutions, development organizations, and government bodies. These collaborations expand and diversify the ecosystem, creating a robust network of stakeholders committed to financial inclusion.