ADD.xyz's DeFi Mobile Money Bridge

Letting a million flowers bloom for Africans: ADD.xyz's DeFi African Money using Cardano
Our Vision:
In the first ever DeFi solution of its kind, ADD.xyz will enable tens of millions of African Mobile Users to directly access DeFi lending protocols through mobile money in african using Cardano integrated into the first ever dedicated African Mobile Application for Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Services.
In order to understand our proposal, we'll provide a primer on what mobile money is, how it's used and why it's such an important factor in Africa. Skip to What is Mobile Money?
Bridging the gap between mobile money and decentralized finance is one of the largest hurdles to overcome; enabling grassroots users to flow into a new economic system based on blockchain.
Collaboration between key service providers in both segments may prove beneficial in the long run. Africa is a content that can benefit from broader access to financial services and products and is ripe for growth as millions of users gain exposure to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
We believe that Cardano's philosophy of empowering Africans alongside it's strong focus on top-level governmental adoption for architecturing a new digital infrastructure with Cardano.
Tens of millions of Africans have on boarded onto blockchain services and cryptocurrency platforms in the past year, driven by political and economic factors exacerbated by Covid-19, has exposed the vast use and popularity of a new alternative economy, with Nigeria being the single biggest country with Bitcoin P2P volumes in the world.
Why we believe in Cardano:
We believe that ADD's DeFi mobile-money bridge between African currencies and crypto powered by Cardano will allow for millions of users to interact with DeFi lending and privacy solutions built on top of Cardano.
With Cardano being the only major company focused on the development and growth of Cardano within Africa, our vision is to act as the DeFi onramp locally into the Cardano ecosystem. The company and it's team have built substantial inroads into Africa, with crucially important relationships formed with governances, financial organisations and institutions across the continent, backed by Charles Hoskinson's vision.
Building Networks:
ADD has already built the underlying networks of companies, integrations and functionality between local mobile networks in Nigeria and soon to also include Kenya, tied to our DeFi systems on ADD.xyz which allow for users to deposit Naira into our local mobile money accounts for which in return ADD allocates users APY within protocols such as Compound, DYDX, Curve, Cream and YFI from it's treasury floats within these protocols, avoiding costly deposit and withdrawal network fees (GAS) as floats are pre-deployed into these lending protocols and also completely eliminating FX risk as there is no conversion from Local FX into USD as it's heavily restricted. APY's of financial products across these areas in the past 5 years have rapidly declined from averages of 20% APY for basic products down to 2% as economic strife grips Nigeria and others.
Growth of DeFi in Africa:
There is a clear financial benefit for Africans to not only hedge their income to Bitcoin and Altcoins, but a huge demand for DeFi services underpinned by the USD, digitally on blockchain. This is hugely understated and analysed by western blockchain projects and teams within the DeFi ecosystem as they do not suffer from the pain points of millions of Africans locally.
Our surveys have indicated that there is an incredible demand for exposure to USD anchored financial products as the US dollar supply within Africa is highly restricted and local currencies continue to weaken due to inflation. On average, there are hundreds of millions of USD in Bitcoin traded P2P within Nigeria on a daily basis, with typical fees for gaining exposure to BTC over 10% in costs.
The millennial generation of nigerian and kenyan DeFi/Crypto enthusiasts are well-educated, savvy and highly connected, fueling the growth and popularity of DeFi, whereby a once obscure unknown financial technology (blockchain) of 2019 is now a household name in 2021.
ADD has a substantial network of companies and investors which provide millions of USD of liquidity within Naira and the Kenyan Shilling, acting as our guarantors for liquidity. Our only challenges which can be resolved would be finding methods of incentivising users within the DeFi space to deposit liquidity on the crypto-side acting to increase our "float capacity" or by finding institutional partners such as custodials and funds that would lend liquidity on behalf of africans looking for exposure to Crypto APY using their Naira.
This is a revolutionary step forward in the way that we have identified a political economic issue at the heart of access for Africa and attacked the problem with a practical, viable and working solution.
Our vision of working on Cardano gives us the strong backing and aligned growth within Africa while ADD can continue to strategise on visionary grass-roots financial products for citizens.
Building Roads to the African Grassroots
- ADD raised a total of 1.4m USD net in 2020, alongside the help of treasury management has managed to put us in a NET increase position month on month. With over 12 dedicated full-time developers and a team behind marketing and design, ADD's DeFi African Mobile Money is beyond ideation stage. Our deposit and withdrawal system of Naira works with our backend management system of APY within lending protocols and is fully operational.
- ADD already has operational procedures underway including the establishment of dedicated companies locally in order to legally operate
- ADD is already technically integrated and working with the UK arm of a MTN/Fiat Gateway and Disbursal partner (equivalent to an EMI) within Nigeria, providing us traditional financial infrastructure such deposits via Mobile Money/MTN through an owner of a large nigerian financial bank.
- Our Front-End POC has been staged on our development platform alongside integrated API's, the solution is not live as of yet and acts as a live prototype for community viewing - https://dev.add.xyz/mobile-money
Development Roadmap and Use of Funding:
We're seeking funding from Cardano for additional resources in the form of developers who either learning or senior with Rust and Haskell for integration with $ADA, Cardano's Blockchain and other dApps from previous Fund Rounds related to DeFi
Participation and cooperation of the Cardano Community & Foundation within the development of this significant Mobile / DeFi Development.
Amount Requested: $85,000
Breakdown of Funds:
$35,000 x 2 - Senior Haskell Developers with Plutus Experience in Africa (12 Month Contract)
$20,000 x 2 - Front-End / Back End Developer 12-month Contract Hire in Africa (12 Month Contract)
$15,000 x 1 - Dedicated Senior UI/UX designer in Africa (12 Month Contract)
$10,000 - Marketing Budget for Product Content Marketing in Nigeria and Kenya (12 Month Time Period)
Technical Details:
Smart Contracts
- We have not utilised any Smart Contacts in the proof of concept
Details of architecture
- Mysql for Databases and Application side we use node.js
Current API's
- User Registration/ Login using email API
- User Balance API
- User Deposit History
- User Investment API
Proof of Concept Outstanding
- Frontend UI And Integration Completed - https://dev.add.xyz/mobile-money
- Merchant Account API Withdraw Implementation
- Long-term research towards establishing aggregation using Liqwid Finance and other proposals of using Plutus Blockchain to power Mobile Money.

Build Phase and Timelines:
In Q3 2020, ADD.xyz had a vision of connecting millions of mobile users in Africa directly into DeFi, we embarked on a research process to look at the current operational, financial and technical issues from preventing this.
Q3 2020 - [Research] DeFi lending into Africa via Mobile Credits — Add.xyz to Mobile
Status: Completed
Q4 2020 - [Design & Architecture Planning] DeFi lending into Africa via Mobile Credits — Add.xyz to Mobile
Status: Completed
Q3 2021 - [Build, Test & Deploy] DeFi lending into Africa via Mobile Credits — Add.xyz to Nigeria
- Frontend UI And Integration Completed - https://dev.add.xyz/mobile-money
- Merchant Account API Withdraw Implementation.
Q4-Q2 2022 - [Research, Test and Build] Creation of Lending Protocol Integrations on Cardano (Plutus) and contract building of Mobile Money on Cardano

What we need:
We're seeking funding from Cardano for additional resources in the form of developers who either learning or senior with Rust and Haskell for integration with $ADA, Cardano's Blockchain and other dApps from previous Fund Rounds related to DeFi
Participation and cooperation of the Cardano Community & Foundation within the development of this significant Mobile / DeFi Development.
What is Mobile Money?
Mobile money refers to the payment of money without the use of hard cash through your mobile devices. Airtime payments, bill payments, and remittances are the leading contributors to mobile financial services. Mobile money systems serve a dual purpose of providing an engine for financial inclusion as well as an opportunity for service providers. More than two billion people in 2012 lacked a formal credit or a saving account. Mobile money systems can play a part in reaching such individuals and provide them the ability to manage their wealth with the help of financial inclusion.
The growing pervasiveness of mobile phones is a driving factor in increasing the number of mobile money users and changing the dynamic of digital financial solutions. Out of the 2.3 billion people who did not have access to formal financial services in 2015, 1.7 billion owned mobile phones
How will ADD.xyz bring DeFi to Mobile Money?
As part of sustained ongoing efforts by the ADD.xyz team, ADD.xyz is fulfilling its promise to create bridges between centralised and decentralised finance. In August 2020, ADD.xyz secured an integration and operational partnerships with major MTN and banking providers in Kenya and Nigeria, giving our new DeFi Mobile Money technology the exposure to 195 million Nigerians and 51 million Kenyan's. In the first phase of launch; ADD will be able to accept the Kenyan Shilling and Nigerian Naira.
Mobile Money has been one of the greatest leapfrog technologies of this century, allowing citizens across developing nations to have access to financial services without traditional banking as the infrastructure often doesn't exist. Add.xyz will work in partnership to allow tens of millions of Africans to send local currencies straight into the leading DeFi protocols such as Compound, Dydx, Curve, YFI and other protocols non-lending based DeFi protocols such as Tornado.Cash, Insurance Protocols and NFT's.
Simply open your Mobile Money App, send to ADD.xyz's local mobile money accounts, connect to ADD.xyz's platform using Fortmatic Mobile Sign on and our back-end database's do the rest by assigning deposits APY using its own liquidity.
The Research behind MTN mobile money; Transactions & Volumes
MTN Mobile Money is a secure electronic service that enables MTN Mobile Money wallet (There are several other wallet providers) holders to store funds, send and receive money, make payments and do a number of other transactions simply using their mobile phone. It's fast, simple, convenient and affordable. It's offered by MTN in partnership with over 10 partner banks, in a number of countries across Africa.
Financial inclusion in East Africa has been significantly impacted by the wide adoption of mobile money services — led by Kenya — but the uptake has been slow in Africa's two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa. While South Africa's more advanced economy often treats mobile money as a "nice to have", the situation in Nigeria is quite different. There, just 40% of people have bank accounts, so the economy would likely get a boost from the expansion of mobile money services.
According to Statistica, research provided on October 21, 2020, indicates that there are over 1 Billion registered MTN accounts with 17.1 Billion transactions in Sub Saharan African Continent with a value of 456.3 Billion USD in the year of 2019 (Statistica, 2020)
Mobile money is undergoing rapid growth in Africa, driven by improved access to technology, difficulties accessing traditional financial services and an increase in contactless payments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Provided by telecommunication companies and supported by a network of licensed agents, mobile money services allow registered users to deposit cash into a virtual wallet, and use those funds for payments and purchases, including peer-to-peer (P2P) payments.
For those with no access to banking services, mobile money provides financial inclusion, a way to participate in the economy without a bank account. This has led to a boom in the use of mobile money in Africa, one of the most underbanked regions in the world. In 2019, 200 million users made 24.46 billion mobile money transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and Northern Africa, accounting for 64.15 percent of all transactions made worldwide. Of the 690.1 billion U.S. dollars in mobile money transactions made in 2019, 456.3 billion U.S. dollars was exchanged in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mobile money has become a big business for telecommunication providers in Africa. Approximately 144 mobile money providers operate in Sub-Saharan Africa, with two companies such as, M-Pesa, MoMo and Orange Money accounting for a significant share of the market.
M-Pesa, managed by Vodafone and Safaricom and operating in seven countries, has seen significant growth in recent years. The service attracted an additional 12 million users from 2017 to 2020, reaching 41.5 million users by 2020. M-Pesa users made 12.2 billion transactions in 2020, generating 784.36 million U.S. dollars in revenue for parent company Safaricom. MoMo — MTN Group's mobile money offering — has enjoyed similar growth, reaching 35.1 million active customers in March 2020.
The effect of underbanking on the use of mobile money can be seen in Southern Africa, where banking services are easier to access. Mobile money has gained less of a foothold in that region, suggesting that unless another solution to financial exclusion in parts of Africa is discovered, that the use of mobile money in Africa is set to grow well into the future.
While the Central Bank of Nigeria wants to grant more licenses, all firms need to have a minimum capital base of $13 million. That is a rather steep amount for entering a space that is already incredibly competitive today. Newcomers won't just go up against established providers, but also fintech firms and telecommunication providers.
Due to these new requirements, partnering with other players in the industry seems to be a necessity. Leveraging a partner's license allows other companies to focus on offering financial innovation and new products. This will, in turn, provide much broader access to financial services across African countries.
Finding the Right Partner
As a company looking to enter the mobile market market, finding the right partners is the first order of business. Joining forces with other mobile money providers is not something to be overlooked either. Having multiple partnerships in place will provide service providers with a bigger presence across the regions they are actively interested in.
Keeping in mind how the mobile money transaction volume in Africa continues to rise year over year, this industry should not be stifled. Although the new regulations make things a bit more difficult for newcomers, there are no restrictions in terms of partnering with other companies, Exploring all available options paves the way for exploring some unique approaches, including exposure to decentralized finance.
DeFi TVL Keeps Skyrocketing
While decentralized finance seems cryptocurrency-oriented today, the introduction of local African currencies can make a difference. As DeFi platforms continue to note an influx of money - measured by the Total Value Locked - providing access to these services can set companies - and their partners- on the radar. The industry is still in its infancy stage and we expect this to continue over the next decade.
Total Value Locked as of November 2020: See PDF
TVL as of March 2021: See PDF
Source: DeFi Pulse
Maker, Compound, Curve, and others have billions of US dollars in combined Total Value Locked. Once local fiat currencies can be used to access these platforms, the DeFi industry can note significant growth. A lot of the potential growth will depend on how frictionless this integration turns out to be.
How does DeFi Mobile Money work?
DeFi Mobile Money stores funds in a secure electronic account linked to an MTN mobile phone number. In Africa, it's the usual way to pay others, pay bills and make transactions. Add.xyz will utilise Fortmatic, a unique mobile sign on solution for DeFi, allowing users to register, verify and control their DeFi holdings through their mobile numbers.
To see Mobile Money in Action; Wait for our Refine Stage Update
How does it connect to DeFi?
Users will deposit local currencies into ADD.xyz's local MTN approved accounts through the main platform. Via ADD's infrastructure, users will then be assigned to the protocol and amount of currency they wish to deposit into any DeFi lending protocol. Interest will then be paid directly back to the users mobile money account, in a fully decentralised and instant solution. ADD uses its own liquidity within protocols to assign users APY, and charges a small service fee. Over time, ADD will introduce yield farming incentives for other DeFi users to act as liquidity providers, thus increasing the amount of deposits possibly available to African Users.
Conclusion
Bridging the gap between mobile money and DeFi may not seem all that strange, all things considered. Mobile money is designed to provide financial access to those who can't or won't access traditional products and services. As such, one can look at decentralized finance as a potential extension of the current services and products accessible on the market.
Making banking services easier to access across Africa remains a key challenge. Projects such as ADD.xyz show this can be done by tapping into the power of blockchain technology and decentralized finance, while we hope to use Cardano's underlying blockchain technology as both companies ambitions align in the drive for growth and adoption in Africa.
Users of this service will gain direct access to lending with privacy. at competitive interest rates and without having to download anything, as well as payroll solutions and derivatives trading. These DeFi-as-a-service solutions can put ADD.xyz at the forefront of Africa's next financial revolution.