Budget Proposal - Opening the First Ghanaian Steem/SBD Exchange utilizing the already existing Digital Mobile Money System
“Yensesa”, a word derived from a Ghanaian language called Twi which translates as “Let’s Exchange”. This is a new exchange service that simply automates a process of exchanging Steem / SBD to Ghanaian cedi (in Digital Fiat form) via Mobile Money. Currently, the Ghanaian and other African users on Steem are doing this manually and our solution will automate it.
What is Mobile Money
Mobile money is digital currency on the rise in Africa. Mobile telecom companies in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, just to mention a few are leading the way into the cashless future, by allowing their customers to send digital money to each other and are able to cashout in paper money at converting mobile money Kiosks. There are thousands of such Kiosks at every corner in Ghana.In 2016 MTN in Ghana recorded about GH¢56 billion in mobile money transaction, Kenya’s M-Pesa still accounts for the highest number of mobile money transactions in the country, with 423 billion shillings (US$4 billion) in person-to-person transfers.There is a huge opportunity to leverage the existing mobile money infrastructure and integrate it with the Steem blockchain to allow Steem users easily takeout their Steem / SBD in mobile money transfer.
Problem
A common practice with Ghanaian / African Steem users needing to cash out their Steem. They endup having to transfer their Steem to different trading platform, converting it into Bitcoin and then using a local Bitcoin/Cedi dealers to exchange. Dealers can be found on platforms like localbitcoin.com so this is already a reality and people are losing money and time between trading platforms and it being done manually.
Solution
Our proposed solution is to automate this existing manual system in 3 easy steps.
A Steem user who wants to sell their Steem/SBD for cash signups up with us.
They tell the system how much Steem / SBD they want to sell and add their mobile money number to receive the cash.
They send the Steem / SBD to Yensesa from their Steem wallet and we send them mobile money instantly.We currently don't have that sort of crazy demand which could overload us yet but it is coming, as all of Ghana and Africa rushes to sign-up to Steem due to the massive promotion happening around Ghana and the continent at the moment. We see massive growth potential with this project as everyone that has a mobile phone in Ghana (Both smart and non-smart) can receive mobile money (Digital Fiat).Imagine how much difference we can make in the next 2 years, with 30% of Ghana or 1 million Ghanaians, each needing to exchange thousands of Steem / SBD in a month, with the best service, customer support and approval from local government Yensesa will scoop up millions of Steem/SBD and we will become the Coinbase of Ghana and eventually Africa.
What will the funding be used for
About 40% of the money raised will go into liquidity to support our first few transactions, 20% will go into engineering hires, 15% will go into operation cost and 25% into marketing and promotion (local radio, television, street, billboards, SEO and other promotion strategies by @accra and #teamAshanti) for Steem and Yensesa to increase awareness. This funding should be able to sustain the team until we reach cash flow positive and are ready to expand to the next phase of the project.
Milestone (2018)
Feb 28th : Complete UI Design (PSD)
March 16th : Complete PSD to Html Design
April 5th : Complete Frontend + Api integration
April 12 : Release Private Beta
May 11: Release Public Beta
July 06 : Public Launch with transaction volume of upto $5000+ processed.
Aug 01 : Start Massive Public Steem promotion
Sep 06: Release public API to support POS devices
Nov 05 : Start POS integrations for Hotels , Restaurants , Shops and other service providers.
How Much We Need
We are raising in total of 5500 STEEM and we are asking for 1500 STEEM in funding support from the STEEM budget. We will be working with @hyperfundit to complete the rest of the funding. I will also like to say we are open to any amount the funding budget will be able to support us with no matter how small, it will still go a long way to help us. If we exceed this goal, the rest of the money will go into our marketing budget which is purely focused on increasing Steem awareness on local radio, television, street, billboards and other promotion strategies by @accra #accra and #teamAshanti!
Team behind this project
@hemangmehta (CTO & Co-founder)
@Black-Man (Product Lead & Co-founder)
@Enockagbo1 ( Brand Ambassador )
@Desmond41 (Content Lead)
Magrette Osafo ( Customer Service Lead)
Timothy Quarshie (Business Lead)
Advisors
This is a huge budget. I learnt something very important today before now I do think yensesa is a name of a town in Ghana, now I know better.
In every post there is always something to grab.
Yensesa is Ghanian (twi) word for Exchange , an ancient concept all humans understand... exchange has always been vital to our survival
Thanks... remember to follow us an get updates.
Nicely done! Yensesa is a much needed solution and promising project. I'm looking forward to your launch :)
-Rob
Thank you for coming in and saving the day from my perspective, because i didnt havr the upvotes to support yensesa posts as much as i wanted and although the creator has his own successee, steem community was nit reslly aware of yensessas potential but now your here... i just wanted someone from steem to get behind this projecy because i know its garunteed ro work. Ive seen manual Ghanian exchanges in action so i know this will work
@ackza Thank you, there's still much work to do, but I too believe in the yensesa mission and want to see it come to life
Thanks Rob... we will be launching soon.
Well said
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by blackman from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
Yensesa will surf the trendy waves
Very cool post.
I was waiting to see something of this level of communication.
PASS!
Thanks @surfyogi. This project is really close to our hearts and is going to be a big success. Thank you for your constant support.
Welldone, that is a great job guys. I hope is the best solution ever.
Thank you sir
Yes this is a huge budget. How can we start smaller and take some steps with smaller payments?
Thanks @jerrybanfield for looking at this and your question. We are very happy to start small and we appreciate that such a funding amount might be raised in tranches. Any funding support we are able to get from budget team at this stage can take us through the private beta testing and even more. We will then continue to update the community and the budget team has to how the money is being spent and put in additional request over time if there is the need to. In addition to this, other forms of support such as mentorship, advise etc will also help us, as we grow from an idea into a business. To wrap it up any amount from the budget team + going advise and mentorship (if possible), will go a long way to help us get this service going and to support the Steem community.
Great initiative started. Simplifying the trading process. Hope it gets the needed support to start and stay ongoing