[BS] KSM #594 - Enterprise Onboarding & Institutional Collaborations for Kusama in Nigeria
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Description

https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/594

  • Nigeria has over 39.7 million small and medium businesses.
  • These businesses make up 96% of all companies in Nigeria.
  • They help create almost half of the country's money.
  • They also give jobs to more than 84% of workers.
  • Most of these businesses still use old internet tools.
  • Kusama Network can help them with new technology.
  • The proposal wants to bring Nigerian businesses to Kusama.
  • It will show how blockchain can help with everyday business needs.
Appendants
1
#1
28d ago

🟢 0 • 🔴 3 • ⚪️ 1
5-member quorum not met.
Vote #1: NAY
8 available members.
No CoI reported. DV delegation exercised.
https://kusama.subscan.io/extrinsic/30206204-2
https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/594#3

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Results
Voters
7
one-person-one-vote
Information
Members
9
Timestamp
Created
Sep 15 2025 14:29
Start date
Sep 15 2025 00:00
End date
Nov 14 2025 00:00

Votes·7

No current votes
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Discussions·1

Thank you all for taking the time to review our proposal and provide candid feedbacks. We deeply value this input and would like to clarify and adjust accordingly:

On the point of government grants: in Nigeria, government programs and tech funding bodies (such as SMEDAN, BOI, and NITDA) are generally structured to support Web2-style startups in areas like fintech, agriculture, or logistics. These grants are designed for traditional businesses with clear local incorporation, audited financials, and compliance with strict regulatory frameworks.

Unfortunately, blockchain projects especially those that directly build or integrate with decentralized infrastructure like Kusama/Polkadot are not eligible under these programs. In fact, the regulatory environment in Nigeria is still very cautious around cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption. While there are pilot programs for “digital economy” initiatives, none of them extend to funding permissionless, public blockchain networks.

This is why ecosystem-led funding is essential. If we wait for government grants, progress will stall, and projects with potential to onboard enterprises into Polkadot/Kusama will never even start. That said, part of our strategy includes
collaboration with local government SME bodies (SMEDAN and others) for enterprise outreach and awareness, but as partners in mobilization, not as funders.

In short:

  • Government funds = Web2/regulated sectors only
  • Ecosystem funds = blockchain-native builders and enterprises
  • Our role is to bridge the gap by bringing enterprises closer to Polkadot/Kusama, while ensuring compliance and trust with local institutions.

On Past Activities concerns by EzioRed and Jose_TwoPebbles:
While much of our earlier work has focused on creating awareness for build on dot via meetups and business development efforts, these have not been “basic” in intention but foundational steps to build a credible presence and trust within the Nigerian enterprise ecosystem. While our activities has been imbed as a link attached to the doc.
We've successfully on-board hundreds of users in recent time, the most active community in the ecosystem, contributing across all sections dotbulls, multiple parachains, the community produce over 55% of the total current ambassadors in the ecosystem, growing awareness speedily in the region through collective efforts of the team leads for the past 3 years. without any previous attempt at the treasury, this proposal only aim to build on this accomplishments by pivoting towards onboarding enterprises and changing the narrative from just consumer base.

On Ambitious Target As with other DAOs misunderstanding this, and as explained during the last AAG.
The plan is to reach upto 500 enterprise via the content lead plan towards web2 platforms, since it's web2 projects that are the target.
And by the end of this phase on-boarding fully 10 projects only!
While creating awareness in the minds of 500 and offering training to 100.

This phased approach allows us to validate the model, prove capability, and then scale responsibly.

On Budget Use ($65k) The requested budget is intentionally lean and excludes team incentives. It is designed as a first initiative, where funds are dedicated solely to execution (enterprise workshops, onboarding infrastructure, documentation, and partnerships). Our intent is to prove delivery with this budget before scaling further. Importantly, while the requested amount is lower than many single-project spends, this initiative is structured to support multiple enterprise pilots (up to 10 MVPs) maximizing ecosystem value, and spreading risks.

On Supporting Evidence We are working to secure and include letters of intent from SME associations, accelerators.
This is only possible after the necessary fees has been paid, which is highlighted as a 2 months milestone delivery in the proposal.

Commitment Moving Forward Our approach remains: start lean, prove value, scale later. This feedback has been essential in helping us refine the scope to ensure accountability and deliver measurable outcomes for Kusama.
We hope this addresses the concerns raised and look forward to re-engaging with a more grounded, evidence-backed version of this proposal.

We hope to move forward quickly, as we've evaluate the feedbacks from various DVs, we're already behind schedule for this initiative. The NYSC orientation camp for youths in the country starts this coming week and only lasts three weeks. To align with the timing for a large audience gathering and to ensure signings of necessary documents within this period, we need to move quickly, especially since Kusama refrander last only two weeks. We'll have the last week to activate this.

Meanwhile AAG session; https://x.com/TheKusamarian/status/1971001709443842454

With gratitude, Polkadot Nigeria Team

Information
Members
9
Timestamp
Created
Sep 15 2025 14:29
Start date
Sep 15 2025 00:00
End date
Nov 14 2025 00:00
Results
Voters
7
one-person-one-vote
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