Fix the Money, Free the Marginalized: The ABC DADA Fellowship and the Future of African Finance
Across the African continent, millions of women work within and around broken financial systems, navigating informal lending circles, stretching inconsistent earnings, and making crucial decisions in economies that were never designed with them in mind. They understand volatility not as theory, but as daily life. Yet in conversations about financial sovereignty, decentralization, and the future of money, their insights are often absent. That absence is not accidental, and it comes at a cost.
The Missed Opportunity in Plain Sight
Women form the majority of Africa’s population and carry the bulk of its informal economies, yet remain structurally excluded from traditional finance. In places like rural Kenya, women-led savings groups have quietly created systems of resilience where banks have failed. In Lagos and Accra, women are navigating complex microeconomies with more precision than many fintech dashboards could reflect.
The infrastructure is already there. What’s missing is the bridge between their realities and the tools that promise freedom tools like Bitcoin.
A Fellowship Designed for Leverage, Not Symbolism
The ABC- DADA Fellowship was born from a simple but urgent recognition: the future of Bitcoin adoption in Africa cannot be discussed without African women in the room, not just as participants, but as contributors and strategists. Formed through a partnership between the Africa Bitcoin Conference and Bitcoin Dada, the fellowship is a targeted initiative designed to elevate the women who are already building in their communities and give them a global platform from which to do more.
Selected fellows receive full sponsorship to attend ABC 2025 in Mauritius, mentorship from Bitcoin leaders, and access to technical workshops tailored to their context. More importantly, they join a network that values applied knowledge and long-term collaboration. This is an invitation into a growing movement, one that is both technical and cultural, local and global.
The Work Has Already Begun
Bitcoin Dada, which has trained over 700 women in Bitcoin fundamentals and development, is not just introducing tools, it is building fluency. Its alumni include educators, entrepreneurs, and developers who are already creating open-source resources, building Lightning-based applications, and running Bitcoin communities. These women are not waiting for permission or headlines. They are writing documentation, onboarding peers, and translating abstract cryptographic concepts into tangible, lived experiences.
In short, they are doing the work!
From Adoption to Ownership
Bitcoin doesn’t scale by slogans. It scales through relevance when it solves real problems for real people. The ABC-DADA Fellowship leans into this principle by equipping women with knowledge, and context. Fellows are expected to return to their communities as sovereign actors, capable of teaching, building, and questioning.
And as they do, they seed local ecosystems of understanding and trust. Because adoption isn’t about viral content; it’s about consistent proof of work, over time.
The Network Effect We Should Be Paying Attention To
Much has been written about Bitcoin’s potential in the Global South. Less has been said about who’s driving that potential forward on the ground. When an African woman begins to understand Bitcoin deeply, the impact extends far beyond the individual. She becomes a point of reference, a resource, a translator of complex systems into local logic. She becomes a multiplier.
If Bitcoin is serious about global adoption, this is where the signal is.
Applications for the ABC- DADA Fellowship are on going. Click here to apply.