₿trust, a non-profit organisation focused on decentralising Bitcoin software development has announced its acquisition of Qala, an organisation training African Bitcoin engineers to drive Bitcoin’s growth in Africa and the Global South while nurturing a generation of engineers committed to the open-source ethos of Bitcoin development.
The deal, which was completed on September 1st, 2023, will see Qala rebrand as the ₿trust Builders Programme, to strengthen ₿Trust’s mission to drive the development and education of Bitcoin open-source engineers from across the Global South.
Speaking on the acquisition, Bernard Parah, Co-Founder and director of Qala, says “When we launched our program in 2021, our goal was clear – to build a critical mass of African engineers with a deep understanding of Bitcoin’s capabilities to transform the continent. Today’s announcement significantly accelerates this mission, strengthening our capacity to not only expand our existing community but effectively resource them to play a major role in influencing Bitcoin’s open-source development as a vital solution to Africa’s unique socio-economic challenges.”
“With this in mind, we strongly believe our new transition should not only be viewed as a massive boost for the Bitcoin ecosystem but a crucial foundation in leveraging Bitcoin as the gateway and catalyst to financial freedom in Africa and the Global South.”
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Launched in 2021, ₿trust focuses on fostering developer talent and supporting the free and open-source Bitcoin ecosystem by locating, educating, and remunerating Bitcoin open-source engineers from the Global South.
Originally funded by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z, ₿trust is currently headed up by a board of directors – Abubakar Nur Khalil, Carla Kirk-Cohen, Obi Nwosu, and Ojoma Ochai. Under the quartet’s leadership, the organisation has launched the Africa Open Source Cohort, which offers support to its pioneer member, Vladimir Fomene, working on the Bitcoin Development Kit, and proudly sponsors the Africa Bitcoin Conference, an annual gathering for Bitcoin stakeholders from all around Africa and beyond.
Qala, founded in 2021, sources, trains, and matches African software developers with leading Bitcoin companies from across the world, equipping its engineers with the most sought-after skills in the global Bitcoin talent market.
To date, Qala has built Africa’s largest online community of Bitcoin developers spanning over 42 countries including Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. With an impressive fellowship placement rate, the programs’ alumni have secured roles at the likes of Galoy, SphinxChat, and Bitnob, as well as open-source grants from ₿trust and Superlunar.
As part of the deal, Femi Longe, CEO of Qala, and Stephanie Titcombe, Programmes Manager at Qala, will officially join ₿trust as Programme Leads at ₿trust Builders. To kickstart the next phase of its growth journey, ₿trust Builders’ program will pivot to focus on open-source training and has launched a call for its next cohort of senior African software developers seeking to transition into building for Bitcoin and Lightning.
Ojoma Ochai, Board Member at ₿trust said “We’re incredibly proud to welcome Femi and his excellent team to ₿trust. With Qala’s extensive outreach and world-class programs, the organisation has made rapid progress in driving open-source development in the Global South through the advancement of education within the region, which is heavily aligned with our core mission at ₿trust.”
“As we move forward, we’re fully focussed on not only building on Qala’s impressive work in Africa but empowering more developers throughout the Global South with the support they need to build truly innovative open source solutions through the power of Bitcoin.”
In September 2023, ₿trust Builders will launch the ‘Build for Africa’ Hackathon, which seeks to encourage makers to build solutions that solve African challenges and increase Bitcoin adoption in Africa.
This will serve as a platform for open innovation and collaborative problem-solving, where makers will converge to generate novel ideas through an idea hack focused on tackling Africa-specific challenges and accelerate their Bitcoin projects through mentorship in design, development, and lighting integration. The hackathon is a key pre-event for the Africa Bitcoin Conference on December 1 – 3 in Accra, Ghana, which ₿trust is proud to support for the second year running.
