Empowa Wins $1.8 Million From Cardano's Project Catalyst to Create RWA Tokens for Affordable Housing in Mozambique

Empowa, a Real World Assets (RWA) startup from Mozambique, is one of the solutions to gain funding in the recent Cardano Project Catalyst program.

Cardano community members have approved funding for 258 proposals in the recent Project Catalyst program, with a total of ₳250,300,000 (approximately $246 million) allocated to support innovative solutions.

This round of funding marks a significant milestone in the program’s history, pushing the overall number of funded proposals to new heights at 1,800+. Kudos to the brilliant minds behind these projects!

“We are thrilled to announce the results of #Fund12! 258 proposals will receive funding, bringing the total number of community-supported ideas to 1,800+.

🧋Join us in celebrating the incredible diversity and innovation showcased by our community.”

— Project Catalyst (@Catalyst_onX) July 16, 2024

One of the approved solutions is Empowa’s proposal on the creation of RWA tokens for affordable housing, enabling capital raising, tracking cashflows, ownership, and returns. The solution, which expands on Empowa’s existing payments application (Enpowa Pay) built on Cardano, is being developed in collaboration with Kenya’s Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and EY Parthenon (Kenya), a financial strategy firm.

According to Empowa, the NSE reached out seeking to assess the potential viability of blockchain technology for the creation of capital instruments to address the $2.5 billion annual housing finance requirement, with a focus on the informal consumer market.

Empowa has a track record in addressing the poor access to mortgages across the continent, as we covered in this article earlier.

How Empowa is Empowering Mozambicans 🇲🇿 to Own Homes via the $EMP Token Built on Cardano

Built on the Cardano blockchain, Empowa says it protects investors against potential defaults with the $EMP (Empowa Token), which partners put up as collateral when issuing debt.

One $EMP… pic.twitter.com/ugjXr7jbLp

— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) June 1, 2023

A vast number of individuals in Africa rely on income from informal sources which greatly hinders their ability to obtain property through the credit market. Due to the untraceable nature of their earnings, it becomes exceedingly challenging for them to establish the necessary profiles required for accessing mortgage loans.

For instance, Kenya currently has 27,786 mortgages in a country of 51 million people (0.0005% of the population), compared to the UK which has an estimated 11.4 million mortgages in a country of 68 million people (17% of the population). More than 80% of income is informal which means that more than 80% of the market cannot qualify for a mortgage.

Empowa Pay, its blockchain-based rent-to-own cashflow management system is currently used by 18 developers across 8 countries in Africa, tracking $8.5 million worth of housing across the continent.

Empowa has also achieved the delivery of installment sale funding that enables families (50% women), rejected by banks for mortgages, to purchase climate-smart affordable homes. So far, over 20% of the value of the homes have already been paid back in Mozambique, according to COO, Greg Schneider.

For Kenya, Empowa says it has already done a kick-off meeting with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and began assembling the project team.

We’re excited about the opportunity to work with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to tokenize Real World Assets (#RWA) on their platform! 🇰🇪📈

Join us in making this a reality! Please vote for us! Only ~6 hours left to cast your #ProjectCatalyst vote! 🗳️⏳

🔎 Find our… pic.twitter.com/FbBw1VLRLA

— Empowa (@empowa_io) July 11, 2024

The project is expected to take 12 months.

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