Advertorial: IOG floats local fintech solution to forge global smart contracts

Advertorial

• Input Output Global (IOG), the engineering company of the blockchain platform Cardano, is to launch a Haskell computer programming course in Ghana.
• The course will empower 80 students to create projects and build applications to transform Ghanaian industries using blockchain.
• Students will learn Haskell – an incredibly precise, highly secure programming language which is used for mission-critical applications in the aerospace, defence and finance sectors.
• Positions at a leading blockchain research and development company are available to students who excel on the course.

A group of 80 students in Ghana is being offered a course to learn functional programming techniques and how to build smart contract applications – blockchain-based, self-executing contracts.

The course will enable a new generation of Ghanaian innovators to develop solutions autonomously to tackle day-to-day challenges faced in the country, from applications to create a more accessible financial industry and also to build projects to grow the arts and music industry with NFTs – unique, blockchain-based digital collectibles that artists can sell to fans. Students will be trained in the Haskell programming language – a precise and secure programming language which is used in mission-critical industries such as aerospace, defence and finance, where high levels of accuracy are crucial.

Smart contracts are becoming an increasingly important skill for programmers. They are used heavily in the financial technology space, because they offer security, transparency and accuracy without compromising on credibility, at the same time reducing regulatory costs. And given Ghana’s drive to digitise its economy, with the Bank of Ghana working towards a blockchain-based digital currency, these skills will be crucial for the next generation of technology leaders.

The course will be held in Accra, with the delivery partner the Pan-African Tech Foundation (PATF), a not-for-profit foundation which promotes technological development in Africa, and the blockchain research and development company Input Output Global (IOG), the development arm behind the leading green blockchain platform Cardano. PATF and IOG will be liaising with technology-focused universities and hubs to ensure the best candidates are selected for the course. Those who excel on the course will also benefit from job opportunities at IOG.

Charles Hoskinson, CEO at IO Global, said: “At IO we are committed to empowering citizens to autonomously develop solutions to day-to-day challenges in their own nations, which is why the Haskell training courses are such a fundamental part of our work.

“We have always taken an academic, research-first approach to blockchain development, so Haskell was our choice of programming language for our industry-leading green blockchain platform, Cardano.

“With a generation of innovative tech leaders in Ghana capable of using such a secure and robust programming language, we could see transformative applications built which shape the tech landscape in Ghana for decades to come.”

Requirements

1. A degree in IT
2. Students with a background in maths, physics, engineering

Interested participants should send their CV and transcripts to hello@pan-africantech.org.

For more information, WhatsApp or call: 026 572 1444 / 054 605 8524.

About the Pan-African Tech Foundation

The Haskell training launch in Ghana will be facilitated by Elaine Bannerman, founder of the Pan-African Tech Foundation (PATF), and her world-class team of professionals.

PATF is an independent, not-for-profit, non-governmental foundation, established in Ghana and the diaspora (UK) to promote technological development in Africa and to provide education, legal, regulatory and technological support in the establishment and implementation of blockchain and other emerging technologies in Africa.

In 2021, PATF has run boot camps across the African continent introducing blockchain and artificial intelligence through five sub-regional hubs. PATF is currently represented in 50 countries.

About IO Global

IOHK is an R&D and product engineering company, committed to using peer-to-peer innovations to provide 21^st-century services to the three billion who don’t have them.

We build blockchain-based products for governments, corporations and academic institutions and upskill people across the world, empowering them to solve the most pressing problems faced by people in their countries.

We have core beliefs in decentralisation, privacy, economic identity and financial empowerment for everyone, and stand opposed to centralised control and bureaucracy.

For more information – including interview opportunities – contact:
hello@pan-africantech.org

Notes to editors 

IO Global’s Haskell training courses

In January 2017, IOG set up its African headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In January 2019, in co-operation with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the Ugandan government, IOG launched a ten-week blockchain developer training course for 22 women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

On completing their courses, five of the highest-scoring students were offered full-time employment by IOG. The Haskell course has been rolled out successfully in four countries. The course was initially run in Athens, Greece, with most of the students originating from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens.

In order to have a bigger impact, the course was then taken to countries which initially were not associated with computer science. Upon initial success, the course was rolled out in Barbados in association with the University of the West Indies and, following that, in Ethiopia in co-operation with the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the government of Uganda.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, IOG ran an online learning course with Haskell in Mongolia. In April 2021, IOG signed its first major deal with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education to implement a national, blockchain-based student and teacher ID and attainment recording system that can verify grades digitally, remotely monitor school performance, and boost education and employment nationwide.

For more information on IOG’s most recent Haskell training course in Mongolia, please see here.

13 November 2021