Empowa, a Real World Assets (RWA) startup from Mozambique, is one of the solutions to gain funding in the recent Cardano Project Catalyst program.
Empowa was approved by 1,099 unique members of the Cardano community for ₳1,835,000 (approximately $612,000) in funding for its proposal on the creation of RWA tokens for affordable housing, enabling capital raising, tracking cashflows, ownership, and returns.
Project Catalyst’s #Fund12 results are here.
🥁 🥁 🥁
A whopping 258 proposals have been funded, pushing the total number of supported ideas to new heights (🎉1800+). Kudos to the brilliant minds behind these projects!
💡🌐See the results here: https://t.co/lb2Iw7FypJ pic.twitter.com/A3M79GJrHN
— Project Catalyst (@Catalyst_onX) July 16, 2024
The solution, which expands on its existing payments application (Enpowa Pay) built by Empowa on Cardano, is being developed in collaboration with Kenya’s Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and EY Parthenon (Kenya), a financial strategy firm.
According to Empowa, the NSE reached out seeking to assess the potential viability of blockchain technology for the creation of capital instruments to address the $2.5 billion annual housing finance requirement, with a focus on the informal consumer market.
Empowa has a track record in addressing the poor access to mortgages across the continent, as we explained in this article.
How Empowa is Empowering Mozambicans 🇲🇿 to Own Homes via the $EMP Token Built on Cardano
Built on the Cardano blockchain, Empowa says it protects investors against potential defaults with the $EMP (Empowa Token), which partners put up as collateral when issuing debt.
One $EMP… pic.twitter.com/ugjXr7jbLp
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) June 1, 2023
A vast number of individuals in Africa rely on income from informal sources which greatly hinders their ability to obtain property through the credit market. Due to the untraceable nature of their earnings, it becomes exceedingly challenging for them to establish the necessary profiles required for accessing mortgage loans.
For instance, Kenya currently has 27,786 mortgages in a country of 51 million people (0.0005% of the population), compared to the UK which has an estimated 11.4 million mortgages in a country of 68 million people (17% of the population). More than 80% of income is informal which means that more than 80% of the market cannot qualify for a mortgage.
Empowa Pay, its blockchain-based rent-to-own cashflow management system is currently used by 18 developers across 8 countries in Africa, tracking $8.5 million worth of housing across the continent.
Empowa has also achieved the delivery of installment sale funding that enables families (50% women), rejected by banks for mortgages, to purchase climate-smart affordable homes. So far, over 20% of the value of the homes have already been paid back in Mozambique so far, according to COO, Greg Schneider.
For Kenya, Empowa says it has already done a kick-off meeting with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and began assembling the project team.
We’re excited about the opportunity to work with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to tokenize Real World Assets (#RWA) on their platform! 🇰🇪📈
Join us in making this a reality! Please vote for us! Only ~6 hours left to cast your #ProjectCatalyst vote! 🗳️⏳
🔎 Find our… pic.twitter.com/FbBw1VLRLA
— Empowa (@empowa_io) July 11, 2024
The project is expected to take 12 months.
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