“Yensesa”, a word derived from a Ghanaian language called Twi which translates as “Let’s Exchange”. This is a new exchange service that simply automates a process of exchanging Steem / SBD to Ghanaian cedi (in Digital Fiat form) via Mobile Money. Currently, the Ghanaian and other African users on Steem are doing this manually and our solution will automate it.

What is Mobile Money

Mobile money is digital currency on the rise in Africa. Mobile telecom companies in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, just to mention a few are leading the way into the cashless future, by allowing their customers to send digital money to each other and are able to cashout in paper money at converting mobile money Kiosks. There are thousands of such Kiosks at every corner in Ghana.In 2016 MTN in Ghana recorded about GH¢56 billion in mobile money transaction, Kenya’s M-Pesa still accounts for the highest number of mobile money transactions in the country, with 423 billion shillings (US$4 billion) in person-to-person transfers.There is a huge opportunity to leverage the existing mobile money infrastructure and integrate it with the Steem blockchain to allow Steem users easily takeout their Steem / SBD in mobile money transfer.

Problem

A common practice with Ghanaian / African Steem users needing to cash out their Steem. They endup having to transfer their Steem to different trading platform, converting it into Bitcoin and then using a local Bitcoin/Cedi dealers to exchange. Dealers can be found on platforms like localbitcoin.com so this is already a reality and people are losing money and time between trading platforms and it being done manually.

Solution

Our proposed solution is to automate this existing manual system in 3 easy steps.

A Steem user who wants to sell their Steem/SBD for cash signups up with us.

They tell the system how much Steem / SBD they want to sell and add their mobile money number to receive the cash.

They send the Steem / SBD to Yensesa from their Steem wallet and we send them mobile money instantly.We currently don't have that sort of crazy demand which could overload us yet but it is coming, as all of Ghana and Africa rushes to sign-up to Steem due to the massive promotion happening around Ghana and the continent at the moment. We see massive growth potential with this project as everyone that has a mobile phone in Ghana (Both smart and non-smart) can receive mobile money (Digital Fiat).Imagine how much difference we can make in the next 2 years, with 30% of Ghana or 1 million Ghanaians, each needing to exchange thousands of Steem / SBD in a month, with the best service, customer support and approval from local government Yensesa will scoop up millions of Steem/SBD and we will become the Coinbase of Ghana and eventually Africa.

What will the funding be used for

About 40% of the money raised will go into liquidity to support our first few transactions, 20% will go into engineering hires, 15% will go into operation cost and 25% into marketing and promotion (local radio, television, street, billboards, SEO and other promotion strategies by @accra and #teamAshanti) for Steem and Yensesa to increase awareness. This funding should be able to sustain the team until we reach cash flow positive and are ready to expand to the next phase of the project.

Milestone (2018)

Feb 28th : Complete UI Design (PSD)

March 16th : Complete PSD to Html Design

April 5th : Complete Frontend + Api integration

April 12 : Release Private Beta

May 11: Release Public Beta

July 06 : Public Launch with transaction volume of upto $5000+ processed.

Aug 01 : Start Massive Public Steem promotion

Sep 06: Release public API to support POS devices

Nov 05 : Start POS integrations for Hotels , Restaurants , Shops and other service providers.

How Much We Need

We are raising in total of 5500 STEEM and we are asking for 1500 STEEM in funding support from the STEEM budget. We will be working with @hyperfundit to complete the rest of the funding. I will also like to say we are open to any amount the funding budget will be able to support us with no matter how small, it will still go a long way to help us. If we exceed this goal, the rest of the money will go into our marketing budget which is purely focused on increasing Steem awareness on local radio, television, street, billboards and other promotion strategies by @accra #accra and #teamAshanti!

Team behind this project

@hemangmehta (CTO & Co-founder)

@Black-Man (Product Lead & Co-founder)

@Enockagbo1 ( Brand Ambassador )

@Desmond41 (Content Lead)

Magrette Osafo ( Customer Service Lead)

Timothy Quarshie (Business Lead)

Advisors

@Ackza

@Masterroshi

@Richforever