Employment Credentials in Tanzania

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We test the feasibility of our solution to issue and verify credentials for a better recruitment market in Tanzania and Zanzibar and form a deployment plan. We'll also publish a report of our findings

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Fairway:

• Is introducing this service in their SaaS already in Ethiopia
• Has good connections and Finnish partners in Tanzania
• Consists of graduates of PRISM Pioneer Program
• Has done similar market assessments in Ethiopia before

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Zanzibar has gained a lot of recognition in Cardano Community due recent incredible developments by IOG and World Mobile. This development brings the local technology scene to a new age with radically improved internet connectivity and also with Atala PRISM based identity solution offered to the new users and operators of the World Mobile internet.

The current technologies in the market are generally still fairly basic. The available recruitment methods and services are not highly technological or utilize these new technologies. The employment experience and proof of employment are still handled, like in most of the developing world, on paper.

The people of Zanzibar suddenly have this radical new technology in their pocket but so far its full potential hasn’t been exploited. We would like to change that.

We have eyed the Zanzibar and the wider Tanzanian market to implement our solution. Finnish people have an active governmental and business community in Tanzania and the potential to build business and partnerships looks promising. Implementing our service at Zanzibar has a potential to be followed by further implementations in other areas of Tanzania starting from Dar es Salaam and the capital.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Fairway is a startup providing recruitment SaaS to developing markets. Our product is launching for the public in Addis Ababa in August of 2022 and will expand to international markets in Africa in 2023. Ethiopia is the first country issuing educational records as Verifiable Credentials (VC) on Cardano and Fairway is the first business in the market to actually utilize those records within our platform. Currently we are working on introducing PRISM connection to our platform in two ways related to recruitment. You can find detailed information here on the following proposals:

• Integrating PRISM to our recruitment platform to verify education efficiently for recruiting businesses as part of the recruitment process: Recruitment Utilizing Atala PRISM. This proposal passed and is currently being built. You can follow our progress through catalyst monthly reporting.  
• Becoming an issuer of Proof of Employment -credentials for users who have got recruited through our platform and proven by both parties involved: Employment Credentials on PRISM

We propose to bring this improvement to Zanzibar and Tanzania with our complete recruitment SaaS. What makes Zanzibar a unique place to study and implement is the fact that World Mobile customers have an existing DID that can be leveraged in both ways with this approach. The World Mobile customers can sync their DID's to our system and share their credentials as part of the recruitment process. A job seeker can for example utilize the credentials that they got through the use of World Mobile services to prove their identity and trustworthy payment history. This credit can be used in our software to improve the verification and trustworthiness level of a candidate. The implementation that we are currently building for educational records in Ethiopia can be utilized for verifying other types of credentials as well.

Our platform can then be used to efficiently create Proof of Employment -credentials for people employed in Zanzibar and Tanzania. The use of Fairway SaaS takes away a radical barrier of lack of technological skills and right incentives for issuing these credentials and by using it, the people will have a larger set of usable and crucial credentials on their existing identity wallet. These Proof of Employment -credentials can play an especially big role when applying for a loan in the bank or buying insurance making the credit score better.

World Mobile has a target of 100k new customers in Tanzania in Q1 of 2022. This means that the potential customer base is expanding rapidly. As this World Mobile expands in Tanzania and to other markets, given our approach, it will be easy for us to expand with them in the future as well.

To go to a new market in 2023 we need to do a market assessment in 2022 and form a go-to-market strategy.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

This project includes a market study, study report for the community and a creation of a deployment plan. Through this we aim to understand the employment market and methods in Zanzibar and Tanzania better, to learn about World Mobile credentials issued to their users on DID and the potential for the businesses like ours utilizing Cardano to utilize them and enter these markets. Based on our studies we will create a market entry strategy and publish a feasibility report for the Cardano community. If the adaptation level of PRISM DID's is still too low the market entry of Fairway might be delayed. If the current employment market is not ready for digital services and handling of documents we will have to assess its impact and adjust our timeline accordingly.

It also might be that the Credentials that the users of World Mobile get from using the service are difficult to utilize properly in the recruitment process.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Roadmap:

1. Pre-study: Contact World Mobile and study their credential framework. Form analysis on implementing World Mobile user credentials in the recruitment process. Study Zanzibar recruitment market leveraging Finnish contacts on the ground. Study Tanzanian job market through Finnish business and governmental contacts. Arrange a meetings with at least three important entities in the market and contact channels
2. Market study: Two team members travel to Zanzibar and spend 2 two weeks on the ground discussing with local labor market authorities and forming connections. Studying the potential framework in which the Proof of Employment -Credentials should be issued in Zanzibar to be the most beneficial to the locals. Meeting with at least 50 users of World Mobile and studying how they use PRISM, credentials and do payments. Paying a market study for a third party provider to study employment locally
3. Market study 2: Two team members visit Dar es Salaam to conduct a similar feasibility study in the market for one week.
4. Post-study analysis and the Feasibility Report: Team in Finland analyses the results of market study and local findings and our developers analyze a framework to implement Proof of Employment -credentials from Ethiopian context to fit the local market needs. We deliver a Feasibility Report for the Cardano community so that similar projects planning on building on these systems gain value from it
5. Deployment plan for our technology. We set up timeline, first customer segments, cities and demographics as well as credential issuing frameworks ready for the deployment to the markets.

Timeline:

The 1st stage starts in the beginning once the funding is secured and lasts till the end of September 2022. The 2nd and 3rd stage last 1,5 months and the last stage for around one month. We expect to be finished by the end of November 2022.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Pre-study:

• 2 person with half a month work analysing Credentials and creating product implementation strategy analyst Henrik & Gemechis: 2 x 0,5 x 4000 = 4000$

Zanzibar market study trip:

• Salary costs: 2 x 0,5 x 4000 = 4000$
• Travel Costs: 6000$
• Meeting costs: 500$
• Third party market Study: 1000$

Tanzania market study trip:

• Salary costs: 2 x 0,25 x 4000 = 2000$
• Travel Costs: 3000$

Post-study analysis and deployment plan:

• Expected two weeks of work from two people: 2 x 0,5 x 4000$

Total budget 24500$

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

All of the Fairway team will be working with various subjects described in this proposal. The key focus areas and responsible team members allocated in the budget are listed below:

1&2. Henrik, Heikki and Gemechis doing recruitment related pre-studies on Zanzibar and 

Tanzanian market

3. Henrik and Gemechis traveling to Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam to study the market

4. Post-study analysis + report carried out by Henrik, Jussi, Kidus and Mearaf

5. Deployment plan with Henrik, Heikki and Gemechis

The description of relevant team members and the complete team describtion is below. First Five included with a group selfie with CH.

Henrik Metsämäki - Co-Founder & CEO, Product Develompent and strategy. Prior to founding Fairway Experience in Digital consulting and tech sales for 2,5 years and leadership experience of 2 years in Non Profit entrepreneurial organizations focused on design thinking. Actively studied blockchain space since 2017. https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrikmetsamaki/

Heikki Ruhanen - Co-Founder & COO, Partnerships, Finance and Operations. Prior to founding of Fairway experience of 2 years in leadership of creative people of Dash Design Hackathon in Aalto Entrepreneurship society. 2 years in B2B sales in marketing companies and 5-years of experience being part of Finlands startup community. https://www.linkedin.com/in/heikkiruhanen/

Gemechis Marema - CCO, Customer relationships, Sales and Product development. Over five years of experience in product development, sales, customer relationships and strategic consulting. Worked as engineer in Ethiopia and currently finishing studies on a second degree in business and information technology focusing on software development. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemechis-marema-ba90bb1a9/

Kidus Wendimagegn Mammo - CTO, MSc in Security and Cloud Computing with a passion for building scalable, reliable, and secure software systems. Experience working as a DevOps engineer. 6 years experience working with python in different domains among which is 3 years of developing web application and API's using the Django framework. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kidusmammo/

Ermias Bunaro - Head of UX, full-stack Engineer and Designer with focus on UI software. 5 years of experience in various international businesses and leading large software development teams.

Skills - Markup/UI: HTML5, CSS3, Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap. Languages Java, Typescrip, JS Frameworks. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ermias-bunaro-ab4a6b4b/

Jussi Korhonen - Head of HR and Service design. Developed and executed recruitment and hr services both internally and externally for thousands of job seekers. Led tens of service design projects from variety of fields. Consulted in strategic choice making and human-centered strategy for years. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jussi-korhonen-5845a18a/

Mearaf Tadewos - Full- stack development Cardano. Experienced Software Development Engineer with focus on Backend/API Development. Also certified Haskell Developer at IOHK Education. She has been working at international companies in the tech industry with cross team collaboration. Has developed an Ethereum NFT Minting and Marketplace platform. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mearaf-tadewos-634228174/

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

There are many projects where we could seek funding for, but this project is not necessarily dependent on them. Part of the objectives after this project (credential verification on our platform) is already funded and don’t need further funding.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

List of KPI's to monitor the success of the project:

3 potential industries/customer segments identified in Zanzibar+Tanzania for deployment

2 potential use cases for PRISM based Credentials in the markets

Engaged to a conversation with multiple job seeker segments in the markets

Published Feasibility report for the Cardano community

Deployment plan created with clear timeline and customer segments

(Additional KPI’s after deployment: 

#of DIDs registered on our platform

#of successful recruitments utilizing existing Credentials

#of Proof of Employment -Credentials issued on our platform to local DID's

#of verifications done to credentials issued by Fairway

Zanzibar businesses and job seekers can utilize DID and to issue and verify credentials through our platform in 2023 if this study is successful. Will be available on https://fairway.global )

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

If this project is successful we’ll deploy our implementation which will bring more users to Cardano’s DID ecosystem. Job seekers have the ability to utilize their Cardano-based credentials in recruitment and employees get issued employment credentials through our software. This will bring people to Cardano and DID’s and also increase the potential of other businesses to adopt this technology. Zanzibar is already an important ecosystem participant through IOG deals on blue economy and World Mobile and Fairway could enhance that in the local Job Market and also try to spread it to wider Tanzania increasing adoption.

A Public Miro board to track our progress (using the password Catalyst): https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOp7qBS0=/ 

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is enhanced from a proposal that almost went through last fund: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/397137

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

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

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG subgoals:

8.1 Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries

8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors

8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms

8.8 Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment

8.b By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization

10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status