Blockchain startup Akowe will 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 around the globe, is held yearly at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Fransisco, USA.

Founded by Ayodeji Agboola, Akowe leverages blockchain technology to issue and verify academic records. Educators, institutions, and edtech platforms can seamlessly plug into Akowe’s solution to issue bulk certificates for their users. Students can also upload their credentials to Akowe to have them verified, enabling employers to properly assess potential hires. The startup has a web application where users can access these services. It also has a mobile app for students to upload and verify their certificates.

Akowe is notably playing in a field that is critical to Africa’s ecosystem development. Skilled talents will continue to be the north star of any ecosystem, and certificates are a consensus mechanism for vetting such talents. Unfortunately, however, certificate falsification remains rampant on the continent, eventually leading to systemic issues within organisations and governments. A 2020 report by local media outlet Punch detailed a meteoric rise in certificate forgery in Nigeria, a country with one of the largest youth populations in the world.

Speaking on what the spotlight means for Akowe, Agboola said: “I am super thrilled that Akowe is being featured on a global stage! This significant milestone means a lot and also means a lot of different things. If you are solving any problem out there with technology, please keep at it. Your reward is always at the next bend.”

Akowe was founded in November 2020 and continues to be a reference startup bringing the utility of blockchain technology to real-world applications. Last month, Nigeria’s ICT policy implementation arm, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), confirmed to NODO that it is in talks with the federal government to begin the issue of NYSC certificates on the blockchain.

💡 NYSC is an acronym for National Youth Service Corps, a one-year national service program that the Nigeran government requires all graduates to participate in. The issued certificates are often required for job placements in both private and public sectors.

Such moves by a federal agency acknowledge the importance of large-scale certificate verification processes, and Akowe is leveraging blockchain to make this a reality.