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By SeCuWa

SeCuWa - Onchain neo bank for Africans

SCF #40
$76.0K
Build
Not Awarded
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A self-custody on-chain neobank giving Africans seamless access to global finance through stablecoins.

Products & Services

Secuwa is a self-custody neo-banking app for Africans providing dedicated wallets for Africans to do cheap and free cross-border payment, a dedicated wallet to save in USDC and a dedicated wallet for investing and holding tokenized RWA and crypto on stellar. See below for details about these wallet 

  1. Stablecoin wallet:

    1. Purpose: Stablecoin wallet is the default wallet on the app where users can use stellar native USDC For payments, transfers, and stashing funds

    2. Stellar Integration: Built on Stellar’s fast and low-fee network, this wallet uses Stellar USDC for instant payments and global transfers.

    3. Impact: Stellar’s efficiency reduces transaction costs and latency, making cross-border payment, everyday payments and micro payment frictionless and affordable.

  2. Savings wallet:

    1. Purpose: This is a dedicated savings wallet on Stellar designed for everyday users to seamlessly earn higher yields and protect their savings from inflation. It integrates directly with Blend.Capital, offering superior interest rates compared to traditional savings accounts.

    2. Stellar Integration: This wallet is built natively on Stellar, uses stellar Native USDC and connects users to Blend.Capital to earn interest on their savings. It leverages some of  Stellar key features such as sponsored reserves for base reserves and trustlines, and  it also leverages stellar fee bump transactions—ensuring a smooth, Web2-like experience for both traditional finance users and crypto natives. Additionally, through stellar partnership with Near Blockchain and  our integration with NEAR intents, users on other chains like Arbitrum can bridge and access higher yields available on Stellar.

    3. Impact: By combining Stellar’s low-cost, scalable infrastructure with cross-chain interoperability, the savings wallet democratizes access to decentralized yield opportunities—allowing users everywhere to grow their wealth safely and efficiently.

  3. Trading wallet:

    1. Purpose: A dedicated self-custody wallet on Stellar for buying and selling tokens, tokenized treasuries, and other real-world assets (RWAs). Designed for flexibility and control, it enables users to actively manage their portfolio while maintaining full ownership of their assets.

    2. Stellar Integration: Built directly on Stellar, the trading wallet leverages Stellar’s native DEX (decentralized exchange) and tokenization capabilities to facilitate fast, low-cost asset trading. It is secured by the user’s local passkey, ensuring self-custody and privacy without compromising ease of access.

    3. Impact: This wallet brings efficient, transparent, and secure trading of digital and real-world assets to the Stellar ecosystem—empowering users with full control over their investments while reducing reliance on centralized exchanges

Soroban

Maybe in the future, but not in this submission

Requested Budget

$76.0K

Success Criteria

  1. Mainnet Launch
    Successful deployment of the platform on Stellar mainnet, enabling real user interaction and live transactions across our savings, trading, and stablecoin wallets.

  2. Active User Adoption
    Growth in the number of users actively using the wallets for payments, savings, and trading — demonstrating product-market fit and real-world utility.

  3. Onboarding to Stellar
    Initial sign-ups and wallet activations directly on Stellar, expanding the network’s user base and strengthening on-chain engagement.

  4. Cross-Chain Yield Participation
    Users from other ecosystems (e.g., Arbitrum) successfully earning yield through Stellar-based protocols such as Blend Capital, showcasing seamless cross-chain interoperability and Stellar’s role as a yield destination.

  5. Non-Technical User Inclusion
    Onboarding non-technical and first-time crypto users who use the wallet for stable savings and everyday finance, advancing financial inclusion and demonstrating Stellar’s accessibility to mainstream audiences.

Go-To-Market Plan

  • PartnerShip strategic Co-marketing 

    • We currently partner with 10 different providers to offer users a seamless on-chain experience. Our marketing strategy includes co-marketing efforts with these partners to promote our services within both the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Traditional Finance (TradFi) sectors. Our partners include Circle (USDC), Gnosis Safe, Arbitrum, Stellar, Ankr, FlutterWave, and Gnosis Pay, among others.

  • Ambassadorship

    • We Recognising that blockchain often attracts a younger demographic, a key marketing strategy involves establishing ambassadorship programs with universities. These programs will promote our product and help us engage both DeFi-savvy individuals and traditional finance users. We currently have over 15 ambassador from 5 separate university in Africa ready to start with our marketing campaign.

  • High-Yield Savings as a Core Growth Driver

    • A key pillar of our marketing strategy is delivering industry-leading Annual Percentage Yields (APYs) on user savings. Through seamless integration with yield optimising protocols such as Blend.capital, we enable users from both TradFi and DeFi ecosystems to access enhanced, transparent, and sustainable interest rates — positioning our platform as the go-to destination for smart, high-return savings. We plan to use this as a core marketing strategy to attract savers and users from underserve communities and give them access to dollar savings account.

  • Frictionless Onboarding: 

    • Secuwa provides frictionless login and eliminates complex wallet setups and seed phrases through account abstraction and passkey PRF authentication, enabling instant access with familiar login experiences. This will helps us attract more TradFi and DeFi users. We plan to showcase this even more with our ambassadorship program and through our various social platforms.

  • Simplified and Gamified Blockchain Interaction: 

    • As part of our go-to-market strategy, Secuwa delivers a streamlined and engaging blockchain experience designed for both new and experienced users. By combining one-click functionality for staking, swapping, transferring, and bridging assets across chains with gamified user interactions, Secuwa removes the complexity of DeFi participation. This approach not only reduces entry barriers but also drives higher engagement and retention, transforming everyday blockchain actions into an intuitive and rewarding experience.

Traction Evidence

We are still in the early stages of Secuwa’s development, but traction has been significant. We currently have 1,000+ active users utilising Secuwa for cross-border payments, savings in USDC, and holding tokenized assets. This user activity validates strong market demand across both the African continent and the diaspora. We have attached some documents below to show tractions and usage of our current implementation

Ankr Usage Metrics:

Ankr serves as our RPC provider for Secuwa. We have attached our usage metrics for reference:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_3Bafk0co3YFSg6A3QDhKjlsR_BpWT9UNkCX-iWAENM/edit?tab=t.0

Arbitrum Incubation:
Secuwa was incubated by Arbitrum through Questbook, and successfully completed the program. Details of our participation and completion report are available here: Secuwa Completion Report.

Circle Partner Program:
Secuwa is listed as a Circle partner for our innovative use of the USDC stablecoin. Details about our partnership can be found here:
https://partners.circle.com/partner/secuwa

Github User Feedback and Implementations - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qv9cUvJhTkIhDaXn5sblKOcSFgRdw0uBxmp1IncbseI/edit?usp=sharing
Gnosis Safe Ecosystem Recognition: https://github.com/safe-fndn/safe-ecosystem-database/issues/116

Tranche 1 (Deliverable Roadmap) - MVP

  1. Wallet Core (Mobile PWA) – $12,000

    • Implement Stellar-specific keypair generation (ed25519) for secure account creation.

    • Enable local transaction signing on-device using Passkey (P-256) PRF integration.

    • This will use passkey PRF with  Stellar SDK (JS) to create and manage accounts securely.

    • This deliverable also includes building all the necessary UI Components  for wallet creation, and Stellar account management.

  2. Unified Wallet Architecture (Main, Savings & Trading) – $15,000

    • Implement trustline creation logic and management for Stellar assets (XLM and USDC).

    • Add sponsored reserves for wallet creation to eliminate the initial XLM funding barrier and handling USDC reserve logic for wallet creation

    • Integrate fee bump transactions to improve UX for both crypto savvy and tardFi  users.

    • Design UI/UX components for sending, receiving, and holding Stellar  native USDC.

  3. Backend Infrastructure (Phase 1) – $8,000

    • Develop Transaction Abstraction Layer (TAL) for Stellar operations (prepareXdr, submitTransactionXdr, checkTransactionStatus).

    • This deliverable will also add support for sponsored reserve for both the base reserve(XLM for the savings and Main wallet) and USDC trustline

    • Enable sponsored transaction submission using fee bump envelopes.

    • Log Stellar events (trustline changes, payments, account merges) for analytics and user dashboards.

Total Budget for this Tranche 1 - MVP - $35,000

Completion Date: Jan 15, 2026

Tranche 2 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Testnet

  1. Cross-Chain Bridge Integration (NEAR Intents) 

    • Implement cross-chain deposits from Arbitrum to Stellar via NEAR intents. This will also allow users from other chains to be able to deposit USDC seamlessly on Stellar through Near Intent. This will also include all necessary UI component to create a seamless user experience - $7,000

    • Implement cross-chain savings from arbitrum to blend.capital(Stellar) USDC pool using Near Intent. This will also support transaction sponsorship using the feeBump transaction envelope on stellar. This will also include developing all necessary UI/UX  component for user seamless interact on stellar leverage stellar feeBump operations - $8,000

  2. Savings Integration (Blend Capital) – $8,000

    • Integrate Blend Capital’s Stellar protocol for yield generation using on-chain savings, this is a stellar to stellar savings integrations for both depositing and withdrawing into and from Blend capital USDC pool 

    • Develop all necessary UI for savings deposits, yield tracking, and withdrawals on Stellar.

  3. Backend Infrastructure (Phase 2) – $3,000

    • Add backend support for Stellar Horizon event streaming (real-time updates).

    • Extend API endpoints for cross-chain transaction management.

Total Budget for this Tranche 1 - MVP - $26,000

Completion Date: Feb 25, 2026

Tranche 3 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Mainnet

App Launch, Backend Deployment & User Onboarding – $15,000

  • Deploy a production-ready PWA wallet  for  Stellar mainnet.

  • Enable support for mainnet USDC and Blend Capital pools for savings and yield for Mainnet.

  • Finalize and optimize the REST API for mainnet transaction submissions.

  • Integrate analytics and dashboards to track on-chain activity, user engagement, and adoption metrics.

Total Budget for this Tranche 1 - MVP - $15,000

Completion Date: Mar 30, 2026

Team

  • Afolabi Sunday - co-founder (UK)

    • https://www.linkedin.com/in/afolabisunday/

    • Afolabi is a self-taught blockchain developer with nearly a decade of experience building products across Stellar, Ripple, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana. He founded Sentit (Stellar), a non-custodial wallet designed for cross-border payments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sentit remains active today, serving over 5,000 users with a dedicated team of full-time staff and contractors, where Afolabi continues to serve as Director. Other notable projects include Quidroo, an invoice tokenization platform where he led blockchain development, and Cowry Protocol, a decentralized peer-to-peer stablecoin project.

  • Alatise Olarewaju - Compliance (Nigeria - UK)

    • https://www.linkedin.com/in/alatise-olarewaju-kabir-21185394/

    • A seasoned Business Development expert with over 13 years of experience spanning Investment Banking, Compliance, Asset Management, Corporate Banking, and Retail Banking. He has worked with notable financial institutions such as United Bank for Africa Plc. as a Relationship Officer, Delords Securities and Investment Limited, Pacesetter Microfinance Bank, Midas Finance. He is an Associate Member of the Nigeria Chartered Institute of Management (NIM) and a Graduate Member of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers of Nigeria (CIS).

  • Sina Namadian - FullStack engineer

    • GitHub: quitegreensky — Tehran, Iran

    • Sina is a seasoned Python developer and UI/UX designer with over seven years of programming experience. His expertise spans software engineering, financial systems, and algorithmic trading. Having designed and implemented several financial trading algorithms, Sina combines strong analytical skills with a keen sense for intuitive product design. In addition to backend and data-driven development, he brings a design-focused mindset that ensures seamless user experiences across platforms. His technical versatility and problem-solving approach make him an invaluable contributor to blockchain-integrated financial products and scalable software solutions.

  • Johnson A. Nigeria

    • https://www.linkedin.com/in/web3johnson/

    • Johnson is a dedicated Web3 Community Builder and Strategist focused on accelerating DeFi adoption within high-growth markets. With over 4 years of experience in emerging market FinTech, Johnson specializes in translating complex decentralized solutions into simple, user-first financial narratives that resonate with everyday people. He is the bridge between the code and the consumer, ensuring our self-custody products (from stablecoin utility to cross-chain integrations) are understood and embraced.

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Afolabi

Afolabi

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Project Stats

Team Size
4
Project Type
Savings
Category
Applications
Total awarded
$0*
Awarded Submissions
0

Other Submissions

No other submissions.