“Bitcoin for Africa, by Africans” was the key theme at the Qala Bitcoin developer offsite event held earlier this month in Lagos, Nigeria. For many African software developers, the pathway to a career as a Bitcoin developer remains an unexplored possibility. This is the challenge that the team at Qala Africa is trying to fix. Program Director of Qala, Femi Longe elucidated how Bitcoin is a lifeline that has provided options to many young Africans who have been locked out of income-generating opportunities.
Africa offers the best use cases for Bitcoin as an innovation. Peer-to-peer engagement is a core part of the Bitcoin DNA and a foundational aspect endorsed by developers in the community driving its development from inception. It’s imperative to know that the growing adoption of Bitcoin in African countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, South Africa, and the Central African Republic is connected to the intensive Bitcoin education programs organized by Bitcoin-focused firms and stakeholders.
Qala, a program meant to train African Bitcoin and Lightning Network developers, is on a mission committed to building an active community of African Bitcoin developers, something that has not been fostered before. This support group will be crucial for the development and growth of every developer in the program. Satoshi’s Journal Newslead Millicent Odife was in attendance reporting on the powerhouse event that is looking to create new solutions for Bitcoin development on the African continent.
The Bitcoin developer-focused gathering featured plebs, sponsors, speakers, and representatives from almost all the Bitcoin-only focused startups in Africa and beyond, such as Carla Kirk-Cohen, a board member of Btrust, a software engineer at Lightning Labs, Abubakar Nur Khalil, CEO of Recursive Capital and Bitcoin core contributor; Benard Parah, the CEO of Bitnob; Oluwasegun Kosemani, the CEO of BotMeCash and co-founder of Satoshis Journal; Femi Lounge, Qala Program director; Heritage Falodun, co-host of Bitcoin In Nigeria Media and the CEO of @DigiOats; popular Africa fintech investor, Victor Asemota; among others.
Abubakar Nur Khalil, who is a Bitcoin Core contributor, has highlighted the need to leverage Bitcoin infrastructure and layered frameworks in building products focused on creating real-time solutions and addressing problems specific to different regions in Africa. Bernard Parah, ‘Bitcoin provides a great opportunity not just for wealth distribution but for freedom. Bernard stated that his desire and that of his team members at Qala is to increase the number of Africans in the crypto space to enable them to fix money problems that affect the ecosystem.
The event made it clear that Africans are living to change the world and honestly believe that Bitcoin will fast-track that process. But it also acknowledges that challenges remain—building on these developments.
Qala promises to keep up with this feat by introducing more developers interested in building with Bitcoin.
Opinions expressed here are entirely that of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of Satoshi’s Journal or Satoshi’s Entertainment Company.