iFoncier Land Registry Burkina Faso

THE CONTEXT

Land tenure/management and cadastre in sub-Saharan Africa in general and in Burkina Faso, in particular, are going through a serious crisis characterized by:

• acute social tensions and increasingly violent and deadly community conflicts leading to communities insurrections/social stand-offs.
• illegal land sales
• unauthorized occupation of public spaces
• destruction of green belt in the cities
• anarchic land grabbing
• an unreliable land registry
• the emergence of disruptive technologies such as Blockchain
• the rise of the internet in African countries
•  the awareness of political authorities on the need to quickly disarm this simmering social bomb

OUR SOLUTION

As digital transformation experts and social entrepreneurs, we want to address the crucial issues outlined above and contribute in reducing the social tensions due to the failed land management in Sub-Saharan Africa in general and in Burkina Faso in particular by using blockchain as a technological response.

We want to implement a reliable and country-wide electronic land register based on blockchain. To make the process of land management as inclusive as possible we will involve the different key actors of the land management value chain and start a common private initiative in partnership with local authorities (mayors, etc.), landlords and notaries and offer registration services to individuals, communities, and companies. To be sustainable the private initiative with the government of Burkina Faso as key project sponsor will be a cooperative enterprise (in short COOP) governed by the OHADA business law.

Our service offering includes land-id/property verification to:

•  individuals, communities, and companies
•  financial institutions and banks

To make the service offering accessible to the public, we will create an easy-to-use frontend mobile application for mobile devices and a multitenant website for desktops for real-time verification.

In the second phase, we will create an exchange portal for sellers and buyers (NFT Platform).

In the next steps, we plan to extend the access to the verification service to the majority of the people of Burkina Faso using mostly features phones by integrating USSD platforms of the main mobile operators in Burkina Faso.

In the longer term, we want to expand the activities of iFoncier to neighbouring countries facing the same issues (i.e. Niger).

WHO WE ARE

we are a group of graduated ICT Experts, Electrical engineers and computer scientists, teachers, and social entrepreneurs aiming to contribute to digital inclusion in Africa.

The key founders of the initiative are:

• Larba Nadieba: He was born in Burkina Faso and is currently living in Germany. With more than 20 years of accumulated experience in German multinationals (e.g. Siemens), he is currently working as ICT and Digital Transformation Expert Detecon International of Deutsche Telekom (the main German and biggest European Telco Operator). He holds an MBA in International Business specialized in "the bottom of the pyramid" markets. Larba is also acting as Guest Lecturer on Blockchain and Emerging Technologies at the Georg Simon Ohm Technical University of Nuremberg/Germany. As a Blockchain enthusiast and advocate for the emergence of disruptive technologies in Africa, Larba has founded in 2018 the West African Blockchain Community (WABC) as a community-based initiative to support the emergence of Blockchain in Africa. WABC is a think tank on Blockchain Technology open to all actors of the ecosystem (private actors, companies, developers, decision-makers, academics, lawyers, regulatory experts, policies makers). The community has over 90 members from more than 18 Francophone countries in Africa and from different professional backgrounds (legal experts, developers, business owners, security forces, IT experts, engineers, consultants, students, Economists, financial experts, etc). In the past 3 years, Larba has travelled across the African continent and has trained over 600 people (entrepreneurs, developers, security forces, IT experts, engineers, consultants, students, Economists, financial experts, women) on Blockchain as a disruptive technology for Africa. Larba is currently senior Adviser and Board Member of Proof of Africa. Larba is Founder of iFoncier. (https://de.linkedin.com/in/larba-nadieba-480ba42)
• Rodrigue Guiguemde: Rodrigue is a graduated computer scientist born and living in Burkina Faso. He is an experienced expert in the development of the digital industry in Africa and the focal point in Burkina Faso of the capacity building initiative at Smart Africa (African Single Digital Market). He is currently preparing a doctoral thesis (PhD) on the Blockchain Technology. In 2019 and 2021 he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) at ICANN. He is the founder of an incubation centre in Burkina Faso and co-founder and general secretary of ITICC (a community-based civil society initiative promoting digital inclusion and digital capacity building in 18 African countries). Rodrigue is co-founder of iFoncier. (https://bf.linkedin.com/in/rodrigue-guiguemde-a588a92b/en)
• Philip Schamberger: Philip is a graduated electrical engineer. Over the last 10 years Philip has worked as a patent and innovation manager at Siemens; in that capacity, he helped to bring innovative ideas into the right path. He holds an MBA in International Business. Philip is a social entrepreneur with Africa as his main focus. Philip has accumulated more than 10 years of experience as a social entrepreneur in Africa. Philip is co-founder of iFoncier. (https://www.xing.com/profile/Philip_Schamberger)
• Joshua Akpan: Joshua Akpan is a visionary blockchain entrepreneur with a knack for pioneering the initiatives that foster the adoption of blockchain technology in Africa. Founder of POA (a stakepool powered adoption driver) and ABCD a blockchain training program initiative to support young talented developers in Africa looking to explore the blockchain space to build products that are bespoke to Africa. He also co-founded Liqwid Finance- an open-source, algorithmic, and non-custodial interest rate protocol built for lenders, borrowers, and developers. (https://ng.linkedin.com/in/joshua-akpan-59447282)

Beyond the listed 4 key founders, iFoncier has planned additional key roles to be filled by specific senior experts (Smart Contract, DeFi, NFT, DMS, UX/CX, System Architecture, etc).  

To implement the solution, iFoncier will rely on young African developers by partnering with ABCD (African Blockchain Centre for Developers). In addition, the project intends to call upon the creative genius, know-how and experience of experts from the African Diaspora. The senior experts from the Diaspora will be the mentors of the young developers. Our idea is in partnership with other stakeholders and/or subcontractors like ABCD, the Anablers, and the West African Blockchain Community to help to create a critical mass of Blockchain Developers. 

• In our RASCI-Matrix ABCD will be responsible for the development coordinated by a senior Blockchain Expert and a senior System Architect.
• Larba as Enterprise Architect and Blockchain Expert will take the role of Program Manager.
• Philip will be in charge of the financial management. He will be the oversight for the financial resources 
• Rodrigue is the Lead System Architect. he will be assisted by another expert in Blockchain and Smart Contract.
• Joshua is the interface to the Cardano Community and the expert for NFT topics. 
• Gwendal LE DIVECHEN (co-proposer) will be in charge of coordinating the developers. 

The majority of the key team members will be located in Burkina Faso.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to contribute to the digital inclusion of the African continent. We are aiming to bring technological responses to the main social issues in Africa. With our solution, we aim to building credit for all citizens of Burkina Faso owners of a piece of land and helping them secure more a financially stable future and to improve their economic outlook.

ROADMAP

PHASE 1: ENROLLMENT OF 3 MUNICIPALITIES (APPROX.  185000 INHABITANTS).

1-month milestones:

• finalize the system architecture and agree on the type of blockchain (private or public)
• consolidate the business model
• conduct due diligence of other blockchain land registry projects

3-month milestones:

• establish the economic entity (cooperative enterprise or COOP) governed by the OHADA business law
• conclude an operating model with the different stakeholders and shareholders
• set up an advisory committee for the verification of disputed lots' ownership
• hire the employees for Phase 1
• select the development team for the frontend applications and conclude an agreement on the scope of the minimal viable product 1.0 (MVP). 
• conclude an agreement for the blockchain integration, Backend-App, dApp, and smart contracts development
• negotiate and conclude agreements with the key services providers.
• start the development of frontend Applications
• Start the blockchain integration and the development of the Backend-Apps, dApp and smart contracts

6-month milestones:

• finalize the development and integration
• start the User Acceptance Tests
• Start field user trials
• Start the communication and promotion campaigns
• Start the piloting phase with the municipality of Piela
• Enroll the municipalities of Bogande and Coalla

PHASE 2: ENROLLMENT ADDITIONAL MUNICIPALITIES (12 MONTHS MILESTONE)

12-month milestones:

• enrollment of the municipalities of Fada N'gourma, Diapaga, Gayéri, Manni,  Poa, and Diébougou (potential impact: approx. 278000 inhabitants)

PHASE 3: LARGE SCALE ENROLLMENT (18 MONTHS MILESTONES)

18 months milestones

• A large scale campaign and enrollment will start after 18 months. 

PHASE 4: NFT PLATFORM AS SELLING-BUYING (24 MONTHS MILESTONE)

24 months milestones

• Development and and deployment of an NFT Platform for selling and buying of land.

PHASE 5: USE OF USSD CODES (30 MONTHS MILESTONES)

30 months milestones

• In partnership with mobile operators, iFoncier will extend its verification services for feature-phone users by integrating the possibilities to use USSD codes. 

PUBLIC LAUNCH DATE

• We expect to launch iFoncier end of Q2/2022.

iFONCIER AS CORPUS OF THE SOCIETY

In Partnership with the local authorities (i.e. mayors, districts leaders), we plan to create in the medium-terms a fund (iFoncier Fund for innovation and sustainability) from the iFoncier generated revenue to support and encourage income-generating activities of young people and women (from rural district in particular), in order to help getting those vulnerable persons out poverty.

KEY METRICS

• Number of parcels/land-lots registered in the Blockchain
• Number of municipalities and rural districts enrolled
• Number of services integrated to the solution
• Number of uses of the application
• Number of verification requests
• Number of direct/indirects jobs created by the iFoncier ecosystem
• Number of income-generating projects of young people funded by iFoncier
• Number of income-generating projects of women funded by iFoncier
• Financial KPI of iFoncier as an economic entity

BUDGET BREAKDOWN (FOR THE FIRST 12 MONTHS)

• Assessment and due diligence = 1.850,00 $
• Setup costs of the cooperative as a legal entity (company setup costs) = 2.750,00 $
• costs for frontend development = 7.000,00 $
• Legal and professional fees = 500 $
• operating cash (working capital) = 5.000,00 $
• other professional consulting fees = 500 $
• acquisition costs of the local blockchain nodes = 6.000,00 $
• Blockchain Infra setup, integration and backend dev = 15.000,00 $
• costs of the first registration's tablets and notebooks = 4.500,00 $
• office rental costs  2.200,00 $
• costs for web hosting (first 12 months) = 750,00 $
• Managed services for the local blockchain nodes including hosting (12 months) = 3.600,00 $
• advertising and awareness-raising costs = 3.700,00 $
• utilities costs = 900,00 $
• employees costs  = 9.700,00 $

SOME VIDEO LINKS:

1. The Founder Larba and Co-Founder Joshua guests by Kaisen Crypto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zwJadnLVkw&t=653s
2. The founder Larba in interview by VoA: https://www-voaafrique-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.voaafrique.com/amp/afrotech-la-blockchain-pour-s%C3%A9curiser-les-titres-fonciers/6256719.html
3. Interview of the mayor or Piela (Mr. NADINGA): https://youtu.be/-OhoaJsSjA4