An app that pays utility bills in crypto.
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Executive producer: C.Y. Lee
To quote this piece: Ebere, “An app that pays utility bills in crypto,” We Them Media, https://wethem.xyz/watch/paying-utility-bills-with-crypto-web3bridge-cohort-12-episode-1-lagos. Each transcript line links to its second.
Four minutes in Ikorodu, Lagos with a member of Web3Bridge Cohort 12, the first episode in the run of short interviews We Them Media filmed as the cohort wrapped. It opens on the product and works backwards to the person.
Web3Bridge founder Ayodeji Awosika introduces the series from the same building, counting the cohort in and out and listing the countries applications for the next one came from.
The introduction that follows is one sentence: “My name is Ebere Lindo Kolo and I’m from Anambra State”, and “I’m Igbo by tribe.”
The route in was a message. “I got into Web3 from my conversation with my friend, Papa”, who was in the last cohort and doing well. “It was more or less a WhatsApp chat and he started like, are you interested in Web3?” The answer was yes, the friend suggested Web3Bridge, and that was the whole recruitment. There was already a developer background there, described on tape as being “already interested in the local C# and React”.
The account of the cohort itself is honest about the cost of it. “it’s been overwhelming, right?”, with assignments that “last till late nights and all that”, and the same word comes back twice before the sentence turns: “It’s been overwhelming, it’s been interesting.” What makes the difference is who else is there. “You have the right community you need, and above all, you have the right mentor.”
The part about teamwork is the most personal thing said. “having to work with people in a team, it’s something that I would say haven’t been easy for me”, but the course reshaped that, along with “having to stay up all night to get the tasks done”. The summary is generous to everyone in the building: “The whole zeal, the whole grit, the whole pushing, it’s something that will contribute to us developing some great products.”
The project has a spelling that gets spelled out. “It’s called Billoq, but it’s spelled Billoq, B-I-L-L-O-Q.” What it does is remove a step Nigerians take every day: it is “a decentralized application that allows you to pay for your utility bills using your crypto directly. So instead of converting to naira and then going back to pay your bills.” The team has finished the process and is “on listing currently”.
The advice at the end is about infrastructure as much as teaching. “Web3 Bridge, minus the teaching, you have the right community”, and beyond that “you have everything you need: internet, power, which is like a major challenge every Nigerian faces”. The recommendation that follows is flat: “I’ll advise everyone or anyone I know to go for it.” Nothing on this tape is hedged.
