Last updated 7 months ago
In Cameroon, finding the right change to match purchases of everyday goods and services is a huge challenge affecting local communities.
Create a native token and a wallet to help collect small change making sure to incorporate an exchange platform with microfinance businesses
This is the total amount allocated to Small Change Wallet.
Understanding the context:
Cameroon has a scarcity of small change to the point where everyday transactions can be challenging when you don't have small change. For example, for me to take a motorcycle ride to the market, it should cost 100 XAF. If I have a bill of 2,000 XAF or even 1,000 I could easily spend the whole day waiting for someone who could take me and reimburse me. (I learned this early on when living here when I spent 30 minutes with a 500 bill looking for a ride. I ended up paying double just for the problem of not being able to be reimbursed). So there are two options of what might happen if you do not have small change.
1. You may be forced to overpay for items or services
2. Purchase other small things that you don't really need in order to help make easier change
3. You can sometimes find someone willing to sell you small change for a fee
Now, you may be thinking why is there not a better solution to this. How do people function? To answer--yes, there are a few solutions that do exist trying to address this huge issue. For example, many vendors are reluctantly starting to accept mobile money, however when you look closely at how much these mobile carriers charge for this service you realize that it ends up being pretty much the same scam as described above. Additionally it is common to form relationships with local vendors and establish informal IOUs when the change issue comes about.
Even in large grocery stores such as Carrefour (international French grocery chain)where you might think they should not have this problem, they have the following solutions: 1. Pay with credit card (uncommon for everyday people to have a credit or debit card) 2. pay with mobile money 3. purchase extra items at the register such as gum, chocolates etc, trying to make easier change, or finaly 4. they will print a paper based IOU (in my experience on paper that is very susceptible to fading if you do not use it quickly enough)
Problem Summary:
Under the current system of addressing the small change problem it translates into the following hardships for people:
For businesses:
Our solution:
Small Change Wallet will be a mobile app built in 3 steps on the Cardano Blockchain:
Core Team & Roles:
Wada Cameroon Hub
Wada Network
Feasibility:
Reference (Past Successes):
Wada has already established active hubs in: Ivory Coast (French), Ghana (English), Nigeria (English), Cameroon (French & English) and Democratic Republic of Congo (French). Through our Cameroon hub we are launching a Haskell and Plutus training initiative that will be leading project based learning throughout our hubs. This project is an example of one of the projects we wish to work through as a learning journey for our aspiring devs.
See related proposal for Scale-UP Cardano Community Hubs: Spread Plutus through Africa https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Spread-Plutus-through-Africa/381332-48088
Budget:
Auditability:
What success looks like:
Key Metrics:
Risk Management:
The main risks we foresee are: The local context not accepting and therefore not adopting the digital stable coin model. We plan to mitigate this risk by running intensive marketing awareness and education campaigns that focus on showing the multidimensional benefits (from ownership to availability) of digital stable coins to the merchant. This is linked to our wider Wada initiatives to spread understanding and adoption of blockchain technology throughout Africa.
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Wada team of software architects and engineers, microfinance collector,