Introducing Empowa

The Empowa team are excited to introduce the Cardano community to a project we have been working towards for many months. We are taking on a very ambitious project, to empower financially excluded communities through shared wealth creation, using an innovative NFT platform to fund housing property development in underserved African markets - a trillion dollar opportunity.

While ambitious, we recognise that big problems need bold innovations and that is why we are forming a team, partnerships and advisors who are experts in their field to collaborate in achieving our goals.

The Empowa vision is encapsulated in our introductory Medium article at https://empowa-io.medium.com/introducing-empowa-308792d899e0

Our full White Paper and links to social media are available on our website at https://empowa.io

Budget document is available at https://empowa.io/phase-0-budget.pdf

Watch our interview with Proof of Africa at https://youtu.be/GTTFW3jKv7E

While our platform build will be crowdfunded through a token sale, as this will not be done until smart contracts are available on Cardano, this Fund5 Catalyst proposal is seeking funding for our Phase 0 activities, as follows.

Pre-Platform Housing Development Proof of Concept

The success of the Empowa Platform is reliant on those participating having confidence that on-the-ground delivery of the proposed housing development approach is viable. By working with a Project Partner and Approved Supplier to prove that a circular, environmentally friendly and affordable housing project can be implemented, we will demonstrate to those looking to support the platform build through the token sale and those wishing to use the platform once complete, that this innovation is achievable.

The following housing development project has therefore been identified as a good candidate for this proof of concept.
Country: Mozambique
City: Beira
Background: Mozambique is one of Africa's most vulnerable countries to climate change. Located on the south-eastern coast of Africa, it is constantly exposed to a number of extreme weather events including droughts, floods and tropical cyclones. In 2000 the country was hit by four cyclones. In 2019 the country was hit by two cyclones destroying homes and displacing thousands.
Challenges: The financial sector is undeveloped. There are only 600 mortgages in a country of more than 30 million people. As income is largely informal and difficult to measure it is challenging for most people to secure a mortgage through a traditional bank.
Project Partner: Casa Real (https://www.casareal.co.mz) is a trusted affordable housing developer in Beira, Mozambique who are currently building with traditional materials.
Approved Supplier: Easy Housing (https://www.easyhousing.org)
Project Objectives:

1. Enable Casa Real to develop the first circular and CO2 negative, affordable home in Mozambique.
2. Prove market acceptance for this environmentally friendly and cyclone-proof building method.
3. Give someone financially excluded access to an affordable, structurally secure and environmentally friendly home.

Given the current challenges identified for Mozambique, Empowa and our partners believe that a successful demonstration of the proposed housing development approach will result in greater confidence in the Empowa concept and demonstrate that the model can also work in other African countries. We are asking the Cardano community to support us in testing the concept in Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world.

By ensuring this critical first step can be completed, Catalyst funding will be the spark required to ignite the Empowa project, which has the potential to not only "Grow Africa" but explode wealth creation throughout Africa, with Cardano being the foundational layer of the Empowa platform. The funds however will not be considered a donation, with the residents of the housing constructed paying to complete their ownership transition (as described in our White Paper). Lease payments will initially be used to fund liquidity required in the Currency Stabiliser (also described in our White Paper) for the Phase 1 platform pilot. Subsequently, the property will be transitioned into the platform for pride of place among other NFTs to enable testing of secondary market trading.

Marketing Campaign

We believe that realising the impact potential that the Empowa Platform can have is an important step towards achieving real change to the wealth inequality experienced by Africans. Therefore in the lead up to our token sale we would like to promote Cardano and Empowa to gain as much exposure as possible.

Our Head of PR will coordinate various campaigns including:

1. Creation of Explainer Videos - making the white paper and proposed solution easier to understand
2. Community Interviews - Cardano, the broader cryptocurrency community and beyond
3. Charitable Organisations - to encourage traditional donors to support our new innovative approach
4. Developmental Financial Institutions / Corporations / Individuals - who may wish to be seen to be supporting a new and innovative solution

This campaign will also highlight and promote Cardano, as many outside of the Cardano community may ask why we selected this blockchain over others. Being given an opportunity to talk about the benefits of using Cardano will not only provide confidence to potential supporters as they learn that we have selected a blockchain built using scientific research and professional development practices (as described in our White Paper), but will also draw their attention to Cardano if they weren't previously aware.

Excitement experienced by potential supporters over the impact Empowa could have, would likely spill over into Cardano more broadly, with them possibly also engaging in other ecosystem projects.

Limited NFT Release

To recognise the Cardano community's early contribution to the Empowa project, 50 limited edition NFTs will be minted. All Cardano addresses that participate in the Fund5 vote for the "Grow Africa, Grow Cardano" challenge will be eligible for inclusion in a random draw to receive one of these NFTs.

As these NFTs will be issued pre-platform build, once the platform is completed and the full capabilities that NFTs created through it will have are available, these rare NFTs will be transitioned to the platform with special empowerment characteristics.