Why are you participating for Based Africa?

First and foremost, I believe blockchain is Africa, here is where the true power of decentralization can be manifested. By particpating in Based Africa, we can work together with a leading EVM compactible blockchain infrastructure with decent gas fee to provide a digital asset platform that empowers NMSMEs to tokenize their asset. Secondly, I intend to showcase the MVP at Obafemi Awolowo University during the month of November, by participating for Based Africa, we can have the resources to be able to have a proper launch. During this period, part of the resources obtained will be used in; setting up the showcase, providing our subscription package to NMSMEs in the region to participate in the pilot showcase, purchase NFTs of those NMSMEs to airdrop to first set of User for practical use of the platform, conduct the first charity works for the platform by airdropping NFTs of needed products to Orphanages, Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Seventh Day adventist Hospital, and schools to showcase the potential of decentralized charity and the elimination of middle men and organizations that dont deliver to those in actual need. Lastly I am participating for Based Africa because I need support in create a financial and global revolution, we are building from an underrepresented community with so many challenges, with the support from Base, we can ramp up production and obtain product market fit.

What challenges are you focusing on?

Despite the growth of the NFT market, many NMSMEs face significant barriers, including limited access to technology and markets. Existing NFT platforms often cater to large enterprises and creators, leaving smaller businesses, especially those with minimal digital infrastructure, without the means to leverage blockchain and NFT technology. This challenge has led to limited martket reach and visibility for these businesses, reduced revenue generation and limited cultural and indeginous products on the international market. In addition, we are addressing the need to secure intellectual property, lack of credible, immutable and verifiable means to prove ownership and difficulty in optimising supply chain.

Another challenge being addressed is the misappropriation of funds, poor infrastructures, extreme poverty and lack of basic needs.

Lastly, we are addressing the challenge of limited adoption of blockchain technology within Osun state.

How does your submission address this challenge?

NFT Factory is a blockchain-based platform designed to empower Nano, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (NMSMEs) by enabling easy access to the world of NFTs. The platform provides a simplified way for businesses, even those with minimal digital footprints, to mint, trade, and manage NFTs. NFT Factory’s mission is to democratize the digital economy, offering NMSMEs the tools to participate in and benefit from the growing global NFT market. Through this platform, we can offer credible and immutable means of proving ownership, secure intellectual property for both businesses and users, optimize supply chain, utilize the NFTs from this businesses to conduct verifiable charitable activities, allow businesses to bring their offerings to the global stage and catalyst the adoption of blockchain technology in the region. Addtionally with NFT Factory, we aim to create real world impact, we intend to use NFTs representing real world product or services to onboard special categories of people. For instance, We are working onboarding DE MOON Pharmacy which is close to OAUTH, with their products represented as NFTs, we can airdrop those NFTs to Patients at OAUTH, onboarding them onto our platform and at the same demonstrating a practical use of tangible NFTs. Another example of the potential impact of our platform is onboarding food vendors within Ile-ife, we intend to airdrop food NFTs to orphanages and hospital patients which they can redeem for the physical product.

Challenges I ran into

We had issues figuring out the platform achitecture and some key features. We also had issues with the redeem feature, needing to figure out different challenges that might arise when users made the function call. We had to implement a three- way handshake ( a form of escrow) and while this solved the priliminary problem, we were face with vulnerability issues during audit. Asides technical issues, we had issues based on our current geography ( Nigeria ) and some of this issues i.e internet connectivity and access, and extremely limited resources, were reasons we created a user-friendly platform to cater for this businesses. We had to work around many constraints purely on resillience and persistence.

Additional Features

The project was built before the buildathon started no update was made to the project during the buildathon asides the decision to have the token deployement on Base and also make Base the first blockchain to have the platform deployed on. We also conducted an audit on the contracts during the buildathon ensuring increase security and reduced vulnerability to the platform. I also filled Base Community Events Intake Form to schedule our MVP showcase with Base team further strengthening our connection with Base ecosystem.