🟠 A $1.3M fund just opened for African devs

Ghana’s former president caught in Solana-themed crypto scam

Topline:​ Last week, former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama appeared to throw his weight behind Solana as a tool for financial inclusion in Africa. But what looked like a bold tech endorsement turned out to be a high-profile crypto scam. (Details)

Driving the news: Mahama’s verified X (formerly Twitter) account shared posts praising Solana’s low fees and announced a new memecoin — Solanafrica — allegedly launched in partnership with the Bank of Ghana.

🚩 Red flags popped up quickly:

• The Bank of Ghana made no such announcement.
• Blockchain sleuths spotted classic pump-and-dump patterns: the coin launched at midnight, spiked, then tanked.
• Worse, 80% of the coin’s supply sat in just three wallets — a textbook setup for manipulation.

Mahama confirms hack: Mahama later confirmed the hack, saying his team discovered it a day after it happened and has since regained control.

• They urged the public to ignore recent crypto posts.

🔎 Zoom out: Mahama isn’t alone. Just days earlier, South Africa’s Parliament suffered a similar fate.

• Hackers hijacked its X, Facebook, and YouTube accounts to promote a fake Solana-based token named after President Cyril Ramaphosa.
• Authorities say the breach only affected one of the Parliament’s YouTube channels and that investigations are underway.

Sui blockchain cofounder launches $1.3M fund for African developers

Topline: Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun has announced a $1.3 million fund to support the training of software developers in Nigeria. (Details)

The details: The fund will give low-interest loans worth $3,300 to Nigerians enrolling in Semicolon’s Techpreneurship program.

• These loans will be repaid at 12% interest per annum with profits from the repayments recycled into the program to accommodate more participants. 
• The program aims to train developers in smart contract programming languages like Move and support blockchain projects on Walrus and Sui, the latter of which was built by Mysten Labs.

Key quote:

“Supporting Nigerian students while inviting more builders to learn the programming language that has defined my career is immensely rewarding. With the rise of AI and blockchain, we are committed to ensuring African students are high-level contributors to the global tech workforce.” 

Why this matters: Africa is behind the rest of the world in terms of blockchain talent. Only 6% of blockchain developers are on the continent. In sharp contrast, 31% are based in Europe and 32% in Asia. 

• The $1.3 million fund launched by Mysten Labs aims to bridge this gap, equipping more African developers to meet both global demand and the growing needs of local companies.

Kenya fails IMF review, loses $850M in funding

Topline: Kenya has missed an $850 million International Monetary Fund disbursement after failing to meet key tax and spending targets. (Details)

The details: The IMF canceled the disbursement after Kenya failed to meet its tax revenue obligations.

• The country also missed targets for reducing government debt and clearing overdue payments. As a result, Kenya has requested a new financial arrangement with the IMF.

Before Now: In 2021, Kenya secured $2.34 billion from the global lender to help recover from COVID-19 economic shocks.

• As part of the deal, the IMF required Kenya to raise taxes and cut spending, but widespread protests forced the government to reconsider some of these measures.
• Last year, Kenya attempted to increase tax revenue through amendments to the 2023 Finance Act, which included a controversial 3% digital asset tax (DAT) on crypto transactions.
• Violent protests forced the government to withdraw the law, but Kenya’s Supreme Court later upheld it.

Catch up

🇳🇬 Binance Academy Urges Kenyan Youth to Embrace Crypto (Capital FM)

🇳🇬 Quidax Lists Nigeria’s First Regulated Stablecoin Amid Market Shift (Dabafinance)

🇳🇬 Nigeria says it remains open to crypto despite $80B Binance lawsuit (Semafor)

🇳🇬 Nigeria moves gingerly to tame Africa’s biggest crypto market (AFP)

Opportunities

• VISA opens applications for Cohort 4 of its Africa Fintech Accelerator Program. Deadline: March 25, 2025. (Details)
• African blockchain talent firm Web3Bridge has opened the waitlist for its 13th cohort. Join the waitlist here.
• USAID announces the Women Entrepreneurship Incubator program in Kenya. Apply here.

We’ll be back next week with more insights.

Until then, stay informed.

Ogechi.