Why are you participating for Based Africa?

I am participating in Based Africa because I deeply resonate with its mission to empower Africa through decentralized technology. As an African, I’ve firsthand experience with the financial barriers that limit access to global opportunities. After winning a hackathon, I struggled to receive my payout simply because of my African nationality, while winners from other continents faced no such difficulties. On a similar note, my sister, who runs a small-medium scale export business, regularly faces challenges with cross-border payments—often subject to heavy taxation and delays. These personal experiences have ignited my passion to break down these barriers, even while collaborating with my team before the hackathon. Based Africa presents a unique platform to address these systemic gaps, and I see it as a privilege to apply my skills in building solutions that promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment across the continent.

What challenges are you focusing on?

Small businesses in Africa remain largely excluded from the benefits of cross-border trade and payments, particularly in the evolving crypto economy. Many entrepreneurs face financial barriers or lack the technical skills to fully participate in crypto-economy. Around 70-75% of African small business owners aspire to engage in cross-border trade and earn in more stable currencies due to the volatility and ineligibility of many local currencies. However, about 45% of those who already engage in international transactions struggle with bridging, exchanging, and converting cryptocurrencies into local fiat currencies, making it difficult to spend or reinvest in their businesses.

How does your submission address this challenge?

Zerokoin offers a seamless platform for users to exchange crypto for fiat and vice versa, enabling effortless transactions with zero complexity and zero barriers. Our solution bridges the gap between the fiat and crypto worlds, simplifying the process for users and making the crypto economy more accessible to the average African. Our mission is to onboard millions of African small businesses onto the blockchain, driving financial inclusion and empowering them.

Challenges we ran into

Hurdles
-Setting up a paymaster contract for gasless transactions
-Deciding on the fiat payment infrastructures to use.
To overcome this challenge, we did thorough research on the fintech landscape in Kenya and Nigeria, analyzed the popular payment infrastructure , and made our decision based on the analysis.

Additional Features

New features

• Adding support for Base chain .
• Migrating from classic EOA wallets to Smart wallets and Embeded wallets
• Using Basenames .
• Integrating with paystack - a popular mobile money solution in Africa .
• Redesign the web app Interface.