I first heard of Bitcoin and Blockchain through a fortune wheel game — Abdul Sahabia CEO of Defi-Africa

Blockchain technology is one of the biggest inventions since the 21st century, a tech that can be implemented in all walks of life. It is known to be the only tech that cannot be hacked since it’s first the Bitcoin blockchain that was launched in 2009. Today even though nations are finding ways to adapt to its use most of the youths in the 21st century who has embraced the tech can boldly say it has changed their lives both financially amongst other things.

Africa, as a matter of fact, has seen so many of its youth growing from nobodies to somebodies just by embracing the tech and leveraging on its importance. And Mr. Yakubu Abdul-Karim also known as Sahabia is one of these youths.

The news team got close to him to discuss his life, blockchain, and Africa.

Sahabia, the lucky child Sahabia is an indigenous name meaning, “Lucky Child”, a nickname given to young Mr. Yakubu Abdul-Karim. Born and raised in Gusheigu, a community within the Northern region of Ghana. He had his basic school education in Gushiegu and proceeded to Yendi for his senior high school education. Sahabia currently holds a BSc degree from the University for Development Studies Bachelor of Science in Planning Program.
He is a Ghanaian based blockchain promoter, writer, educator, entrepreneur, and currently the Ambassador of MakerDAO for Africa, Founder/CEO of Defi Africa, and Ghana Distributor for Pundi X. He has voluntarily worked for several top blockchain projects around the world over the past few years. Sahabia’s ongoing mission is to foster the adoption of impactful DeFi solutions in Africa.
His areas of experience include community building, research, project management, event planning, marketing, and promoting projects on both physical and social media. He loves the challenge of finding and learning about new opportunities.

His Motivation
Sahabia may be a motivated youth whose goal is to ascertain his efforts to generate life-changing results which eventually translates into a huge success.
He said; “I wish to challenge myself to advance on a private level. And this is often the rationale I got myself involved within the most challenging and evolving technology the blockchain. Blockchain led me into developing new skills that I never would have attempted to, already presenting a replacement technology to somebody, starting a conversation with an entire stranger, and developing business proposals to draw in investors which wont to be an alien to me was since I took the challenge. It changed my confidence level and my entire life, not just my career, and this continues to stay me motivated and obtain me through tough days, or days where things don’t go my way”.

Why Blockchain?

If you asked me why I chose blockchain/cryptocurrency I will be able to say; When I first heard about bitcoin at the CLE Gh. seminar back in early 2017, I used to be not much within the realize its underlying benefits. I assumed it had been just an investment scheme. But, as a self-motivated one that likes learning more about new things, I started reading further and attending more seminars about it. I finally realized that the technology behind it, blockchain, was designed to make sure individual liberty and supply an answer to the worldwide financial crisis.
Therefore, if blockchain can solve the world’s financial crisis and individual subjugation, then wherever there’s an ongoing financial crisis or government corruption, this industry might be extremely beneficial there. And actually, several systemic flaws are affecting Africans that require solving. I quickly believed that the true worth of blockchain would be felt within the African continent.
There exist several problems in Africa including unnecessary boundary bureaucracy, poor remittance services, poor alternatives to banking, and corruption, etc. Africa features a lot of dilapidated systems that would be fixed by blockchain. The technology is nearly designed to make sure a free and transparent society barren of government or centralized manipulation. That is, we don’t need to believe centralized corrupt authorities to oversee our medium of exchange and control our funds creating persistent inflation and inequality within the economy. It provides a worldwide currency that sees no borders.
With these reasons above, I even have decided to contribute my quota to ensuring that Africans aren’t left behind during this wonderful evolution.

Getting to realize cryptocurrency and therefore the blockchain through the CLE Gh. seminar in 2017 was something I can not say much but be grateful for. Centre for Liberty and Entrepreneurship (CLE Ghana) — may be nonprofit research and academic think factory committed to advancing voluntary exchange & interaction through the market economy, individual liberty, secure property rights, limited government interference, and rule of law.
At that seminar, bitcoin was mentioned by one among the remote presenters from the USA who again gave us (the participants) an opportunity to play a game called “fortune wheel” where winners were tipped with bitcoin, it had been amazing to everyone how winners received the bitcoin in only seconds. My passion for this industry steadily increased after this seminar. So basically, the CLE Ghana led me into crypto.

In a post on Facebook you expressed your disappointment as the political parties in Ghana have launched their manifestos and decided not to look at blockchain, what do you think the government can do in that space or using blockchain?

Though many crypto supporters believe that governments do hold any affair in doing business with blockchain considering it had been designed to decentralize authority.
Nevertheless, I feel a lot of governments around the world have already recognized the benefits that blockchain offers their countries and have initiated projects which will enable them to tap their potential. A perfect example, the govt of Rwanda strongly supports blockchain and has laid down plans to find out from the expertise of other colleague governments like Canada, Singapore, and the Netherlands, who have experimented with the utilization of blockchain technology in their various countries.
Also, only lately, the Nigerian SEC had impelled ahead to introduce rules standardizing Blockchain and Crypto investments within the country. I see this as an excellent move to encourage and protect its citizen’s involvement during this life-changing industry.
But things seem utterly different in Ghana my beloved country. The government appeared to be flagging behind time. Our political parties seem to be occupied with people that don’t care about the most modern inventions which will offer substantial privileges to the Ghanaian people.

At least, I used to be expecting any of the most political parties to incorporate in their manifestos a policy that involves blockchain, since this technology is one among the principal required in this instant. I think there are countless ways the Ghanaian government can leverage on or do business with blockchain. Should I be asked to render a bit of advice to the govt, I will be able to completely establish a blockchain association at the state level to develop an analysis of how our nation can appreciate the essential and prospectives of the technology. Also, citizens’ trust for the gov’t sector is unattractive and at a rock bottom. Reasons for this apprehension are infinite and complicated, one key example is that the gigantic corruption in the public sector, however, there’s potential for blockchain to contribute to a reversal of this trend. Our government can build trust, protect data, and reduce corruption by building public sector transparency with blockchain. Furthermore, our government can leverage blockchain to safeguard delicate data like electoral results, land registrations, birth certificates, and health records amongst others.

My successes during this space can’t be overemphasized; I will be able to only touch on a couple of. I even have succeeded in organizing several blockchain meetups/conferences for over 1000 Ghanaians, mostly tertiary students, I even have participated in several radios talks about cryptocurrency also as wrote many articles to introduce this technology to people. I even have also succeeded in introducing and onboarding many businesses onto accepting some cryptocurrencies like DAI, Dash, and bitcoin as a payment method within the country.

My successes during this space can’t be overemphasized; I will be able to only touch on a couple of. I even have succeeded in organizing several blockchain meetups/conferences for over 1000 Ghanaians, mostly tertiary students, I even have participated in several radios talks about cryptocurrency also as wrote many articles to introduce this technology to people. I even have also succeeded in introducing and onboarding many businesses onto accepting some cryptocurrencies like DAI, Dash, and bitcoin as a payment method within the country.

I’m particularly pleased with these successes. However, I can only remember one regret, which mainly emanated from the shortage of data once I first started my cryptocurrency journey. once I first got myself involved in crypto, I used to be too optimistic about making money. I almost invested in everything that I found promising high returns on depositing with bitcoin. I lost some money in these Ponzi schemes because I didn’t read wider to understand that they were opportunists taking advantage of the ignorance of newbies. But beat all, I still appreciate everything that happened to me during this space. Both my successes and regrets are contributing tons to my steady passion for this space. Blockchain Benefits; With the alarming percentage in Ghana and therefore the African continent, blockchain has given me a fantastic opportunity to hedge against this problem after graduating from the university.

Though I have never been formally employed during this space, with my consistent contributions to many blockchain projects, I even have been earning an appreciable honorarium for the works I do. additionally, I even have succeeded in founding DeFi Africa (www.defiafrica.net), which enables like-minded people within the space to attach and grow the blockchain space within the African continent. Additionally, I even have met numerous smart friends during this space, both locally and internationally. altogether these the most important achievement I can tout is to having been appointed because of the African ambassador or Ghana representative for a few of the highest blockchain projects within the world like www.makerdao.com, www.pundix.com, and www.cryptolocally.com. Already, it’s encouraging to understand that the blockchain space in Africa is usually spearheaded by the youth.

My admonition to the youth who are yet to seem into the technology to urge involved whenever you’ve got the chance, learn more about the tech, and obtain yourself familiar with people within the space. There exist numerous opportunities for everybody that resolves to participate in blockchain today. However, like every new technology, many scammers intend to take advantage of newbies stepping into space. you’ve got to be very careful if you opt to urge yourself involved within the blockchain space. Whether you’re curious about cryptocurrency trading or marketing blockchain projects aren’t getting too optimistic as a newbie. you’ll get yourself or friends scammed by fake projects within the space. And lastly, the foremost important thing is that each youth should attempt to participate in any blockchain-related event happening around them. Especially attending conferences, networking with like-minded people and reading articles about blockchain/cryptocurrency. In acknowledgement, I might wish to thank all my team members and friends who helped me in a method or another altogether the activities I even have engaged in since I started this journey, especially Habib Adam Mohammed (aka Cryptoshot), Salam Mahamamadu (aka Cryptolib), Micheal Okyere, Abdulai Adeleke (aka Ultimatecrypto), Mathias Adibsa, Micheal Jagdeo, Nene Tetteh Kweinor (cryptobender/writer), and Qudus Muktar (aka Cryptomak). And to the Maker Foundation for the trust imposed on me since I joined the MakerDAO community a year ago.

I’m overwhelmed altogether humbleness for the chance given me and that I will like to acknowledge Maria Magenes (Community Development Associate at Maker Foundation), Gustav Arentoft (Business Development Associate at Maker Foundation), and David Utrobin (Community Development Lead at MakerDAO). I’m thankful to them. Profile: Sahabia may be a Ghanaian based blockchain promoter, writer, educator, and entrepreneur who is currently the Ambassador of MakerDAO for Africa, founder/CEO of DeFi Africa, Ghana Distributor at Pundi X, and Marketing Associate of Liberty Market Company Ltd. I earned my BSc degree in 2018 through the Ghana University for Development Studies Bachelor of Science in Planning program. His areas of experience include community building, research, project management, event planning, marketing, and promoting projects on both physical and social media. Seeing the results of my efforts translate into success directly motivates me. I prefer to challenge myself to advance on a private level.

If you’re working with blockchain projects, legal environments, developing dApps, students or you’re an enthusiast of blockchain and cryptocurrency — welcome to DeFi Africa! DeFi Africa may be a not for profit organization, we are primarily funded through our membership base, which supports the operating costs of the Association. By becoming a member, you’ll get opportunities to contribute to the event of DeFi, participate in community events, and share your own experience and obtain insights from colleagues. Sahabia the Lucky child has chocked several other successes altogether aspect of his life including financial liberation. CLE Gh. has been on the forefront and had changed numerous lives.

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