September 2023 was marked by a new leadership line-up for Qala as it was acquired by Jack Dorsey, ex twitter CEO and co-founder of Btrust foundation. The new leadership of Qala, now renamed Btrust Builders, aims to train African software developers to contribute in Bitcoin lightning development while also building products and services that complements African needs.

With that in mind, this piece is about what Btrust Builders have been up to after the Qala acquisition, while looking into programmes that may have kick-started in this regard.

Read previous post about Qala acquisition

Without doubt, work is on and programmes already in progress at Btrust Builders here in Africa. On January 22nd, 2024, Btrust Builders started its first fellowship for Bitcoin developers in Africa. This is their first cohort since Qala acquisition in 2023. The programme is poised to train African software developers on Bitcoin open-source development.

About 55 software developers and engineers were enrolled for this first cohort which is scheduled to last for 3 months. The selection process for this programme follows rigorous procedures including different levels of interviews and tests. Only successful participants were selected.

In addition, the Btrust Builders fellowship is a part-time programme that rewards participants with remunerations based on their individual tasks delivery. Although, Former Qala fellowship programmes are often full time, Btrust Builders follows almost the same event structure for this programme.

It is uncertain how events might turn out in the future at Btrust Builders for Africa, but essentially, it seems they are driven, in-part, by the same goal former Qala aimed to achieve. According to Femi Longe, Former Qala CEO, open source is not a career curve that most African software engineers would most likely consider, but if Africans developers are not actively involved in the Bitcoin open source development, decisions might be made in our absence which may not represent the AFrican technical and cultural reality.

Essentially, Femi is of the opinion that African software engineers should gear up and take responsibility in driving the African narrative as regards Bitcoin open source development in Africa, even if it does not fit into their career curve.