Earlier this year, we announced our support for Cosmos Hub Nigeria through a grant designed to spark real growth for the Hub and AEZ (Atom Economic Zone) in Africa’s largest tech ecosystem. Now, with the in-person events and hackathon officially wrapped, we’re thrilled to share just how far the initiative has come.
Spanning six major cities and bringing together over 500 builders, developers, and creatives – with more than 160 hackers submitting 57 project ideas via DoraHacks – the Naija HackAtom hackathon lived up to its promise of accelerating Cosmos Hub adoption in Nigeria.
These events delivered hands-on training, real-time collaboration, and a lasting community foundation for Cosmos Hub development across the region. Here’s a look back at how it all unfolded, and what it means for the future of the Hub in Nigeria.
The Hub in Lagos
The first event drew over 150 attendees, who actively participated in a diverse lineup of sessions covering key Interchain and AEZ topics. Talks included introductions to the Interchain, Cosmos SDK, AI integration, smart contracts, and blockchain regulation, with speakers like Popeblack, OkohEbina, theghostmac, and SenatorIhenyen among several others
Virtual presentations from Lex (Passage.io) and Seanrad (Secret Network) added depth, alongside workshops on funding, hackathon strategies, and creative futures in Web3. Networking was enriched by interactive moments like merch drops using Secret VRF, and closing talks introduced Akash and Chihuahua with developer bounties.
See full post and video recap here.
The Hub in Kano
The second event had over 100 attendees, featuring a dynamic lineup of speakers. Popeblack kicked off with an introduction to Interchain, Hub, AEZ, and hackathon details, while Chinedu covered the introduction to CosmWasm: Building a Social Media Smart Contract and Deploying on Neutron.
Alongside all this, Aminu, CEO of Startbench, revealed startup funding secrets, and Malan Shahid provided tips on winning hackathons. Dr Dami shared insights on ‘Beyond DeFi: What Africa Needs,’ and Sirjey01 debated the ‘Builder or Trader?’ and more.
See full post and video recap here.
The Hub in Abuja
Almost 100 attendees joined the third event in Abuja, which featured 14 workshop speakers. Popeblack led the main session, while Chinedu, DevRel for Cosmos Hub Africa, conducted a hands-on workshop on building a dApp with CosmWasm.
Additional presentations included a Noble front-end engineer introducing Noble, a software engineer from Stride, GhostMac presenting on Cosmos Hub-related development, and SeanRad (DevRel at Secret Foundation) running a workshop on building an AI agent. Speakers also represented WID, ETHAbuja communities, and more.
See full post and video recap here.
The Hub in Enugu
The final event in Enugu welcomed 60 active participants and featured a diverse set of speakers. Mmerichukwu led the main workshop, while Godwin Igwurube (DevRel) offered a walkthrough on Cosmos smart contracts and discussed hackathon tracks and ideas. The event also welcomed WID and other notable developers and builders from the Enugu tech scene.
See full post and video recap here.
Akwa Ibom and Kaduna States Were Not Left Behind
Developers from the southern and northern regions of Nigeria also gathered together to learn about AEZ technology while forming a team to participate in the Naija Hackatom in person, with a workshop led by Chinedu and Intro to Cosmos, the Hub, and AEZ by Popeblack with over 60 attendees including developers and creatives.
Naija HackAtom Winners
Alongside the in-person events was the Naija HackAtom, drawing in a total of 160 hackers, 57 projects were submitted on the Naija HackAtom hackathon Dorahacks platform, resulting in 18 finalists splitting a prize pool of $10,000 USD.
After much deliberation, first place went to the submission of Beep, which is a custodial Cosmos wallet allowing users to access Cosmos chains without needing access to the Internet using USSD. Beep provides fiat on-ramping and off-ramping using on-chain intents and solvers. Users can also convert Nigerian naira (NGN) to ATOM and can be extended to support IBC enabled tokens. Beep was even submitted as one of the builds for DoraHack’s AEZ Quadratic Funding Round #6!
Second place went to Padi, which makes it easy to launch funding rallies and support projects, built on Neutron and supports tokens on Neutron. Third place went to AtWork, a next-gen decentralized freelancing platform powered by Atom, designed to transform how businesses and freelancers collaborate in a trustless, transparent, and efficient environment.
Alongside these winners were individual winners of three network-dedicated bounties. Find the full list of winners and their prizes here. You can also read Popeblack’s official final report with more details posted on the Cosmos Hub forum here.
From Vision to Reality: The Success of Accelerate Nigeria
“I needed something to work on, a structure we could bank on, and I came across the Atom Accelerator DAO. I don’t think we would ever come up with the Cosmos Hub Africa community if they haven’t supported us. They saw the vision, the mission, and the purpose of having a Cosmos Hub Africa community. AADAO made that possible.” – Popeblack, Cosmos Hub Nigeria’s main Contributor.
What started as a bold idea to grow the Cosmos Hub ecosystem in Nigeria has now become a vibrant reality. With support from AADAO, Cosmos Hub Nigeria successfully launched a series of high-impact events, going beyond creating major buzz, offering deep, hands-on experiences that helped participants collaborate, form new teams, and begin building real, production-ready applications.
Through this initiative, local talent was empowered, new communities were formed, and the groundwork was laid for long-term innovation across the AEZ. AADAO’s support wasn’t just about funding, it was about helping turn vision into structure, and ambition into execution, all in support of advancing Cosmos Hub.
As we look ahead, we’re incredibly proud of what’s been accomplished in Nigeria, and even more excited to see how this momentum will carry forward. The Hub’s future in Africa is bright, and we’re honored to have played a role in helping it take root.
About the Atom Accelerator DAO
Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a governance-mandated DAO of the Cosmos Hub. We have been formed and mandated to drive value for the Cosmos Hub and ATOM, supporting initiatives that either directly create economic impact or produce value that can drive its growth. From this, our current primary mandates are public grants and venture grants.
*Note: Starting January 1st 2025, AADAO has been sunset and is in maintenance mode, no longer accepting new grant applications.
In 2023, we deployed $3.8 million in grants to 39 recipients – resulting in, among other things – a $22m USD airdrop to the Community Pool, an AEZ Accelerator program to expand the AEZ, a successful hackathon with 42 project submissions bringing innovations to the AEZ – and many other key initiatives. Read about them in our 2023 Impact Report.
