Africa Blockchain Center first cohort of 105 developers graduates

The Africa Blockchain Center has announced the graduation of its first cohort of 105 blockchain developers under its Blockchain Programming Course. The program, which lasted 6 months and was run by a network of global experts, is a hands-on course that teaches students the basics of blockchain technology and decentralized systems and takes them through the various blockchain programming protocols focusing on Cardano, Algorand and Ethereum.

The Africa Blockchain Center describes itself as a Kenyan Web 3.0 company (launched in September 2021) with a mission to drive Africa into the adoption of 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) technologies by building capacity in blockchain programming and catalyzing industry readiness; offers solutions to companies that want to explore the technology, and incubates blockchain startups and companies that want to transition from web 2.0 to web 3.0.

The company says the 105 candidates are from 6 African countries, including:

• Kenya
• Nigeria
• Tanzania
• Zambia
• South Africa and
• Benin

Key learning points from the training that students were exposed to include, but are not limited to; Decentralization in information systems, Principles of decentralization, history and operating principles of Bitcoin, Blockchain Technology Fundamental structures, Decentralization as an approach in Information Systems, Introduction to Asset Tokenization, Cryptography in decentralized systems, Application of decentralized approaches to system design, Alternative digital currencies and tokenization, introduction to smart contracts, functions and roles of cryptographic obligations in accounting systems and development of existing blockchain-based systems (Cardano, Ethereum, Algorand, IoTEX).

Jefferson Mkungusi, CEO of the Africa Blockchain Center, believes that Africa has a huge untapped potential when it comes to web3 development. “The youth that we have trained will be able to build innovative solutions that will enable Africa to leap into a new era. The potential that blockchain has to solve some of the challenges facing Africa is enormous and we have haven’t even scratched the surface. We aim to train 10,000 blockchain programmers, provide 25,000 business leaders and managers with access to blockchain readiness, incubate 50 blockchain startups, and launch robust solutions to the market over the next five years.” Mkungusi said.

As the demand for blockchain solutions increases, the global blockchain industry has a shortage of skilled candidates. A recent study conducted by LinkedIn Corp. and OKX with data collected from 180 countries between January 2019 and June 2022 revealed an imbalance in the supply and demand of talent in the global blockchain field, with a shortage of qualified candidates. Data from the report shows that the number of LinkedIn members working in the blockchain space grew by 76% year-over-year through June, but the countries producing the most blockchain professionals are experiencing a slowdown in talent growth.

“There is not enough talent due to how new the technology is. The technology was conceptualized barely 13 years ago and it has been under speculation for years with no established pipeline for blockchain talent in place. We see the rapid expansion of the sector and have as aim to become the sector’s partner in terms of blockchain capacity.” Furthermore, Mkungusi stated.

Many enter blockchain as a hobby, developing their skills self-taught, informally, online alongside their day job, which also makes evaluating potential hires an additional challenge because recruiters and hiring managers may not know what to look for (or they special red flags) due to own lack of experience and knowledge.

“There has been a 17% increase in recent years on projects using blockchain. From the acquisition of infrastructure for transparency in information sharing, to the distribution of digital assets and many other use cases, blockchain is taking its place at the revolutionary technology table. The newly graduated ABC cohort will therefore add value to the blockchain ecosystem as they are open to new opportunities to support organizations in need of blockchain expertise in Africa and globally.” Mkungusi concluded.

Africa Blockchain Center welcomes blockchain stakeholders to join its ecosystem and help them gain in-depth knowledge of functional and technical aspects of Blockchain technology as well as access the capabilities they need to deploy blockchain solutions in their businesses and industries.