Africa Anti-counterfeit Marketplace

[IMPACT]

This project will eliminate ALL illicit/counterfeit physical products in Kenya's building and construction ecosystem. Secondly, we will provide a transparent, centralized and consolidated digital marketplace for the individual/retail customers to competitively procure professional service (Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Building Engineers, Building Contrators etc) in Kenya and scale to other African countries jurisdiction progressively. See attached project documents

The total estimated Kenyan market cement sales value turnover for ALL six cement companies is USD700Million in 2019/2020. On the flip-side, the estimated illicit/counterfeit sales value in building, construction and electrical sectors as per Anti-Counterfeit Authority of Kenya (National Baseline Survey on Counterfeit and illicit Trade in Kenya 2019 - attached government of Kenya report) is an astonishing USD2.31Billion in year 2018 (3.3 times the value of legitimate business sales).

The population in Africa is predicted to rise from 1.2 billion in 2015 to 2.5 billion in 2050. With affordable housing a key pillar of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, this population growth requires the building of millions of new homes across the continent. According to the Africa Development Bank’s, Housing Market Dynamics in Africa 2018 (El-hadj M. Bah et al) the housing deficit in Africa stands at over 51 million units.

According to Transparency Market Research on behalf of "The Big 5 Construct Kenya", with a housing deficit of two (2) million units and an annual required growth rate of 200,000 units, Kenya has a demand side driven housing need. Kenya’s National Housing Corporation (NHC) estimates the current supply side delivery is running at 50,000 units per annum.

We envision the entire African continent as the ultimate long-term scalable market. Our digital marketplace solution will create transparent competitive pricing of physical products and services, efficiency in project T.A.T and an auditable ecosystem around individual customers seeking to construct residential houses.

Our competitive pricing of products & services system will ensure individual/retail clients obtain the lowest/optimal prices for each item procured on the digital marketplace. This marketplace will provide a "fair-play-Environment" for ALL retail businesses by matching products & services "Apples" for "Apples", from different competing retail businesses' on a single ecosytem (Best-Bid-Prices).

REAL & PRACTICAL CASE STUDY IN KENYA MARKET.

Our project cost savings value propostion, highly and postively impacts lower value projects tickets deals in building and construction.

For example, a bank staff member received several construction quotations for her home at around USD50,000 (+ or -7% cost variance). When she applied and used the staff building and construction loan; the stringent bank loan procurement policy & procedures setup reduced her final construction cost to USD 28,000. This gave her an amazing 44% total project cost saving.

The bank undertook a market valuation upon completion of the project; the building was valued at USD65000 (2.3x cost to value margin within 1 year).

CARDANO BLOCKCHAIN TO LINK INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMERS TO 5TH GENERATION REMOTE AND AUTOMATED ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION IN AFRICA.

Our proposed cardano blockchain solution will effectively link architectural teams within Africa and around the world to provide the best building & construction solution for individual customers in the marketplace in Africa(architectural services beyond national borders). Future digital interations between building & construction clients with professional service providers is depicted by this YouTube video -

The population in Africa is predicted to rise from 1.2 billion in 2015 to 2.5 billion in 2050. With affordable housing a key pillar of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, this population growth *requires the building of millions of new homes across the continent*. According to the Africa Development Bank’s, Housing Market Dynamics in Africa 2018 (El-hadj M. Bah et al) the housing deficit in Africa stands at over 51 million units.

Currently, construction projects are hampered by fraudulent prices & products collusive practices, creating inefficiencies in the market place, limiting financial institutions lending for housing construction projects due to a high project development risk factor and high cost of finance where available.

Our primary objective is the elimination of risk factors (points-of-system failure) associated with illicit/counterfeit products, professional services misconduct and/or fraud and market prices collusion in building & construction industry in Africa.

The proposed Cardano Smart Contracts mechanism, will enforces and ensure "fair-market-practice" for all stakeholders in the closed ecosystem. This innovative system will spur more efficient and enhanced project funding allocation to retail building & construction projects in Kenya and the African continent progressively. This immutable and verifiable projects audit-trail will reinforce and assure confidence to ALL shakeholders/players that ultimately leads to lower cost of project funding.

African disaprora remittances (in-flows) that are geared towards building & construction projects will be funneled into this secure solution with tangible financial projects cost benefits.

Atala PRISM Integration

We will utilize IOHK/EMURGO Atala PRISM solutions as the principle identification and authentication methodology for ALL stakeholders as below:

1. Over 42 Financial Institutions to Fund Projects in Kenya. - We will invite, verify, certify and register qualified financial institutions' into the marketplace to provide Retail /Individual customers' with competitive project funding offers. These approved financial institutions' will be registered under Atala PRISM tailored solution. All Smart Contract payments and receipts to/from project stakeholders’ (Products Suppliers & Professional Service providers’ etc), will utilize our tailored designed Atala PRISM identification and authentication system solution.
2. Register over 200,000 Retail Customers’ in Kenya per annum - We will utilize Atala PRISM intergation solution as the primary mode to register an estimate 200,000 retail customers’ in the marketplace per annum in Kenya. This will give retail customers' power to control access of their data in the ecosystem. According to the Africa Development Bank’s, Housing Market Dynamics in Africa 2018 (El-hadj M. Bah et al) the housing deficit in Africa stands at over 51 million units (potential to register over 51 million individual house/home owners')
3. African and Foreign Manufacturers’ and Wholesalers’/Retailer Shops’ - We will register ALL business entities under Atala PRISM to ensure data (Bios' & Transactions) integrity and confidentiality at every stage of business relationship continuum. All payments and receipts within the closed supply-chain ecosystem; along with receipts from project funders (financial institutions) will be linked via Atala PRISM under Smart Contract.
4. Potential to register 54 National Governments' Taxes deductions and remittance value-chain on Cardano blockchain. - All proposed national and county governments taxes (excise duty, VAT, import duties taxes, local licenses, sales taxes etc.) deductions, collection and remittance in the marketplace will utilize Atala PRISM tailored solution. We will on-board these national government agencies in Phase 2 of the project to accomplish this objective.
5. Registration of Professional Service Providers (Architects, Building Engineers etc).- We will utilize Atala PRISM as the primary registration solution for ALL professional service providers within the marketplace in Kenya and beyond as identified below;

• Registered Architects in Kenya....................1,556.
• Quantity Surveyors -in Kenya........................820.
• Civil & Structural Engineers in Kenya..........1,458.
• Electrical Engineers in Kenya........................436.
• Mechanical Engineers in Kenya.....................374.
• Kenya Building Contractors over..............18,000.

Sub- total ................................................22,644

We will further provide the respective professional bodies with Cardano blockchain value-addition services as below;

•  Active members’ registration database.
• Collection of professional services annual subscription fees and any other monetary transactions in “FIAT” or “Cryptocurrencies’”.

ELIMINATION OF DUAL POINT-OF-FAILURE IN COUNTERFEIT PRODUCTS & PROJECT PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT/FRAUD.

Other major negative consequence of using illicit/counterfeit products in building and construction is the high risk of collapse of properties (loss of investment), asset distraction by fire, loss of life or injuries and unwarranted hospitalization.

Kenya has witnessed numerous properties collapse, as shown by the YouTube video-clips below;

• https://youtu.be/2JSPBBMzHnc - Five Storey Building Collapses in Kenya on 5th March 2022.
• https://youtu.be/IyTX4E_ly2Y - Scores injured after a nine storey building collapses in Ruiru on 17th October 2021.
• https://youtu.be/Z9XYt58jatA - Live footage of a 5 storey building collapse in Kenya in August 2016.**

In Phase 2, we will develop a Cardano land registry interface between financial institutions and governments' land registry for all parcels of land purchased in our marketplace to build houses/homes.

Progressive disruption and dismantling cartels involved in counterfeit/illicit trade, collusion in pricing fixing, geared towards exploiting retail customers' seeking to build their homes. We expect massive push-back/resistance from cartels in private and public institutions (Governments) as below;

1. Apathy or Rejection of adopting our solution by Wholesalers and/or Retailers dealing in Counterfeit - Identify and select re-sellers with highest business integrity to undertake test pilot.
2. Attempted system hacking - Mitigated by ensuring high quality software code that will anticipated potential & vulnerable points in the system.
3. Effcient Customer Social Media Service - Create a team to manage and effectively respond to any FAKE COMPLAINS & REVIEWS & NEWS.
4. Legal litigation geared towards permanently or temporarily blocking or frustrating the project launch/Go-live milestones. - We will seek legal advisory opinion from a high quality external legal firm, specializing in digital products from developmental phase.
5. Personal & Physical threats of harm - Take extra personal secuity pre-caution and an option to relocate key project members to an alternative country (within Africa) from project implementation (emirgation remote working).

We will work together with top-level official in government of Kenya agencies and other African countries government regulatory bodies e.g. Anti-Counterfeit Authority of Kenya, Kenya Revenue Authority (tax collection), Kenya Bureau of Standards (standards body), involved in eradicating of illicit trade for the mutual benefit of stakeholders.

[FEASIBILITY]

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS.

Phase 1 - 3 to 6 months: Funding from Project Catalyst Fund 8

1. Target market implemented in One (1) country – Kenya or Tanzania or Rwanda.
2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ready and deployed for alpha & beta testers.
3. On-boarding nine (9) broad-spectrum MVP beta testers as illustrated below;

FRAMEWORK OF THE PROPOSED AFRICA DIGITAL MARKETPLACE.

A pilot-test will be undertaken in cement manufacturing industry in Kenya or Tanzania or Rwanda. A highlight of the cement manufacturing industry framework in Kenya is shown below.

We have categorized cement production into three (3) fundamental generic quality grades manufactured by ALL competing players in building and construction industry;

Generic Cement Quality Grades Produced by All Brands

• Grade 33.
• Grade 43.
• Grade 53.

A. Target Cement Manufacturers in Kenya.

1. Manufacturer 1 – with 33% market share.
2. Manufacturer 2 – with 16% market share.
3. Manufacturer 3 - with 16% market share.

Total Manufacturers’ Market share by 3 = 65% market share.

B. Major Cement Wholesales in Kenya with Regional/National footprint with direct linkage to Manufacturers.

1. Wholesaler 1.
2. Wholesaler 2.
3. Wholesaler 3.

C. Major Cement Retailers in Kenya with Regional/National footprint with direct linkage to Wholesalers.

1. Retailer 1 .
2. Retailer 2 .
3. Retailer 3 .

D. On-board One major financial institutions in Kenya.

1. Bank 1 – estimated 30% market share of mortgage lending.
2. Bank 2 – estimated 23% market share of mortgage lending.
3. Bank 3 - estimated 11% market share of mortgage lending.

Total Financial institutions Market share by 3 banks = 64% market share.

Phase 2 - Onboard Professional Services Providers.

Registration of professional services providers in Building & Construction at regional & national level. We will ensure registration of professionals certified by their respective professional bodies and/or relevant government agencies (No quacks).

1. Architects - (Certified by Architectural and Quantity Surveyors Association of Country of jurisdiction).
2. Quantity Surveyors - (Certified by Architectural and Quantity Surveyors Association of Country of jurisdiction.
3. Structural and Civil Engineers - (Certified by respective Engineering Board/Association of Country of jurisdiction ).
4. Electrical Engineers - (Certified by respective Engineering Board/Association of Country of jurisdiction).
5. Mechanical Engineers -(Certified by respective Engineering Board/Association of Countryof jurisdiction).
6. Building Contractors -(Certified by respective Government Board/Authority/Agencies of Country of jurisdiction).

NB: No limits to registration to work within each professional bodies operational guidelines process and procedure to avoid legal risk exposure.

Phase 1: Techinal ICT - 3 Months'

We will develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – A team of software developers from Cross Poland - https://crossbm.com/en/#quick-facts.

• Core functionalities of the product will be implemented (anti-counterfeit data on blockchain and web portal for price-comparison and product tracking) to give us a foundation on which the iterative agile process of product refinement can be initiated and to prove the product-market fit of the solution.
• The web portal will be created using the MEAN programming stack which is a popular and synergetic software bundle that stands for MongoDB + Express.js + Angular + Node.js. This choice will guarantee low development costs, no-licensing fees, access to knowledge hubs and wide-availability of developers familiar with those technologies.
• In terms of blockchain part we will be taking advantage of Cardano's metadata functionality to guarantee immutability of crucial product and procurement data.

NINE (9) VERTICAL MARKET INTEGRATION SHAKEHOLDERS FOR PILOT-TEST.

1. Three (3) targeted Manufacturers' - Top three have a combined 65% market-share in Kenya.
2. Three (3) Wholesalers - High volume wholesalers' with regional footprint referred by on-boarded Manufacturers for testing scalability & high transaction T.A.T.
3. Three (3) Retailers – High volume retailers' with regional footprint referred by on-boarded wholesalers' for testing scalability & high transaction T.A.T.
4. 20 TO 40 Retail purchasing customers' to test the “Product & Services price bidding platform” at the retail level.

Phase 2 - 6 months: Funding from Project Catalyst beyond Fund 8.

This phase will include product refinement - based on feedback from initial users. The web portal will be expanded with more advanced value addition Pay-As-You-Use (SaaS) functionalities as highlighted below;

1. Manufacturers' Industry-level database supply-chain management optimization analytics.
2. Quantity Surveyors' Bill of Quantities (B.o.Q) and schedule of materials linkage to the proposed retail product pricing bidding platform.
3. Digital collection and remittance of government taxes (V.A.T, excise duty etc.) from manufacturing, wholesalers, retailers and consumers levels.
4. Secure blockchain communication channels between Advocates/Lawyers with retails clients', financial institutions and governmentsal agencies.
5. Registration and transfer of property title on Cardano blockchain at respective governments' registries.

The application will be expanded into two (2) African countries to prove the ability to scale to new markets.

1. Implemented in two (2) additional countries.
2. Eighteen (18) paying clients.
3. First iteration based on feedback from paying clients.

Phase 3 - 18 months:

1. Implemented in fourteen (14) countries.
2. Thirty Six (36) paying clients.
3. Fourteen (14) nation wide-scale marketing-campaigns delivered.

The last phase will focus mostly on scaling the solution and the user-base. It will consist of a number of wide-scale marketing campaigns and further product refinement.

THREE (3) MONTHS PROJECT BUDGET.

AFRICA ANTI-COUNTERFEIT MARKETPLACE ECOSYSTEM IN BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION.

PARTICULARS                                                            AMOUNT (USD)

1. Product design............................................USD 3,000.00
2. Front-end Development.............................USD15,000.00
3. Back-end Development..............................USD15,000.00
4. Blockchain Development............................USD10,000.00
5. Atala PRISM Development...........................USD 7,000.00
6. Project Management Poland.......................USD 5,000.00

SUB -TOTAL...........................................USD55,000.00

Recruitment & On-boarding of Local partners in Kenya or Rwanda

Project Liaison Team Kenya or Rwanda- (3 Months’)

1. Strategic Team - Minimum four (4) market experts (cement supply-chain management, local Architect and/or Quantity Surveyor, Financial Institution Retail lending expert and local ICT technician) to create software developer project report for Poland Cross Project Manager– …USD16,000
2. Country Project Co-ordination HR & Administration, Legal Research USD4000

SUB - TOTAL.........................................................USD20,000.00

GRAND TOTAL......................................................USD75,000.00

NB: We have manage to raise USD 6000 locally from friends & family.

PROPOSED MARKETPLACE MONETIZATION MODEL [SaaS].

Sellers of physical products will be charged annual subscription fee and/or percentage fee based on transaction volumes funneled within the ecosystem. Professional services providers (Architects, Enginners etc), including financial institutions will be charged an annual subscription fee (TBD).

We anticipate a conservative payback period of 3 to 4 years with additional progressive budget cost.

NB: Registered Individual clients' will NOT be charged for using the App services.

Mikolaj Glinka - Cross - Software & AI House -

Linkedln -https://www.linkedin.com/in/miko%C5%82aj-glinka-94728b110?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3B9b0Oc5TFTcCYxY8IDTFG0A%3D%3D

Chief Innovation Officer - (Currently) - 3 years 10 months -Warsaw, Masovian District, Poland

• Blockchain: Ethereum, Polygon, Hyperledger Fabric, Cardano, Solana -> smartcontracts, fungible tokens, NFTs, metadata.
• Data Science, ML, AI: python, numpy, pandas, tensorflow, pytorch, scikitlearn -> time-series, computer vision.
• Product Design: SaaS legaltech solution.

Mikołaj has in-depth technical skills spanning Computer and Data Science which together with a constant zeal for improvement on his set of strong soft-skills make him into a holistic leader.

He is passionate about Data Science (including ML&AI), Blockchain and astrophysics. A Kaggler and a Plutus Pionner. Cross, where he works, is one of the most experienced IT companies in Poland (est. 1988). Especially in creating top solutions for highly-competitive industries of *utilities, *finance and *banking. We have built the firm around the notion of being customer-centric which helps us deliver value while creating and nurturing long-term relationships.

Cross is a creative and highly experienced team of software engineers who have skills across multiple programming languages and technologies.

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Samuel Gichuru Kimani - Software Developer in Kenya - Fullstack developer Android Koylin & Java); Php Laravel, MERN Stack. Databese - MySQL, Firebase, MongDB. Linkedln - ***https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-kimani-kenya***. Detailed CV is attached below.

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Johnson Kanene - Building & Construction manufacturing Industry Expert (Cement, Electrical & Steel & Aluminium products). Detailed CV attached.

1. Capwell Industries Limited – Specialize Manufacturing of Maize and Wheat flour products in Kenya - Head of Engineering & Projects – May 2020 to date. (1 Year 9 Months).

2. East African Cables Limited – Specializes in production of Electrical Wires in building and construction industries – Group Maintenance Manager (Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo) – May 2014 to April 2020 ( 6 Years).

3. Savannah Cement Limited – Local Kenyan Cement manufacturer – Chief Maintenance Engineer – (2 Years)

4. Mabati Rolling Limited – Manufacturer of Steel products, Iron & Aluminum roofing products for the building and construction industry – Senior Planning Engineer (6 Years).

5. Metal Crown Limited - Manufacturer of crown corks and plastic caps to the beverage industry - Production Engineer/Supervisor.

6. Milly Grain Millers – Manufacturers and processers of multiple grain products – Maintenance Engineer.

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Jensdy Muriithi - A registered Quantity Surveyor with over 15 years’ post registration experience with extensive knowledge and experience in the building & construction industry. See attached CV.

1. Construction Project Manager, Britam Properties Ltd, Nairobi Kenya – Four and a half (4.5) years’,
2. Construction Project Manager for the Kilimani Hotel Suites Ltd, A —USD$42 Million Branded Serviced Apartment development by Britam.
3. Manager; Projects & Administration, NIC Group, Nairobi – Seven (7) Years’. Spearheading the acquisition of spaces for new branches in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and negotiating for leases.
4. Senior Quantity Surveyor, Barker & Barton (Kenya)***, Nairobi. Two (2) years’.

[AUDITABILITY]

1. https://github.com/crossbm/africa_anticounterfeit_marketplace.
2. https://trello.com/b/nOtx7mnv/aam-roadmap.
3. https://discord.com/invite/GSCdAbfg.

The above tools will be used to track the project pregression & milestones by community members overtime.

KEY SUCCESS OUTCOMES – Phase 1

Primary Project Success Output – 3 Months

Tracking at a minimum products of one manufacturer from their factories to three (3) selected Wholesalers to three (3) retail shops to final individual consumer in the ecosystem. Ultimately, tracking all cement products for the three (3) Manufacturers’ to three (3) Wholesalers to three (3) Retailers’ to final retail customers for one month.

Secondary Project Success Output – 3 to 6 Months

The selected ‘20 to 40’ Retail customers successful purchase the lowest priced cement brand from three manufacturers’ via the Competitive Product Price Bidding digital platform 3 to 6 months after Go-Live on MVP.

We made an unseccessful application for a version of project in Fund 7 as per the link provided - https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382990?utm_source=notifciation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=26240&utm_term=idea-status-change&utm_content=c48088.m3113064.rus

SDG Rating

SDG goals:

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

SDG subgoals:

9.3 Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets.

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

9.3.1 Proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added.

9.3.2 Proportion of small-scale industries with a loan or line of credit.