Convexity, a Nigeria-born blockchain consultancy and accelerator, has been confirmed as one of the six finalists of Unlocking Impact, Circle’s inaugural pitch competition. Selected from a pool of global solutions, the finalists will pitch technology solutions tackling some of the world’s key problems, including climate change, financial exclusion, and global poverty. The final event is scheduled for September 22 at BlackRock’s New York headquarters, and will have Adedeji Owonibi and his team present CHATS, Convexity’s flagship aid tech product. “Our team is happy that we have, from Nigeria, built something that rivals many technologies in the world,” Owonibi said in a chat with NODO.

CHATS, short for Convexity Humanitarian Aid Transfer Solution, is a one-stop product that enables onboarding, verification, and disbursement of humanitarian aid to Africa’s vulnerable communities and individuals. The solution leverages blockchain technology to create an ecosystem that eliminates the bureaucracy and uncertainties associated with humanitarian funding in Africa’s low-trust communities.

With this feat, the Convexity team adds to the growing applause for African blockchain startups taking their products to the global stage. Last month, NODO reported that Akowe, a Nigerian blockchain startup, was selected to join 16 other African startups to battle for Techcrunch’s equity-free $100k in this year’s Startup Battlefield competition. The competition, which showcases the top 200 early-stage startups chosen from across the globe, is held yearly at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Fransisco, USA.

With its suite of solutions for NGOs, donors, and individuals, CHATS is demonstrating an ambition to scale beyond a product into an ecosystem for humanitarian aid in Africa. The company claims to ensure a transparent, efficient, and secure process of money transfer via cash vouchers, thereby mitigating corruption and ensuring that aid reaches verified end users.

According to a 2020 report by The New Humanitarian, funds believed to total several million dollars were diverted from displaced people and vulnerable communities in a grand, unprecedented scam in Congo. This case may have been peculiar for its scale, but the diversion of humanitarian aid largely remains a status quo in Africa. This, according to EchoVC founder, Eghosa Omigui, typifies how Africa’s problems have created an enabling ground for blockchain technology adoption. “The lack of physical and digital infrastructure creates a vacuum—and the lack of trust in centralised authority creates an opportunity for blockchain technology in Africa,” he said in an earlier chat with NODO.

Circle, the issuing company of one of the world’s most used stablecoins, USDC, says it is launching the Unlocking Impact competition as a strategy to support innovations that leverage stablecoins to provide aid and hope to marginalised communities globally. “ [The contest] aims to surface transformative ideas and innovative tools that enable rapid humanitarian assistance or tackle one or more of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” reads the company’s site.