Eddie Kago ⚡

Excited to launch SmartShamba.com - your personal farm advisor for instant crop and livestock advisory! Get free, location-specific advice on crops, varieties, planting times, costs, pests & livestock. No more guessing or wasting money on the wrong crops or livestock bets. What will you plant today? Visit smartshamba.com to get started!

Last August, in partnership with the Dangote Group, we made significant progress by signing a landmark shareholders’ agreement for a fertilizer plant with a planned annual production capacity of 3 million metric tons of urea. In October 2025, we officially launched construction of the project. This initiative represents far more than infrastructure. It is a strategic investment in Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation, food security, industrial growth, and economic self-reliance. Once completed, the fertilizer plant will play a vital role in strengthening local production capacity, reducing dependence on imports, supporting millions of farmers, and creating new opportunities for jobs and investment. This morning, together with @AlikoDangote, I visited the project site in Gode to assess the progress achieved so far. I am encouraged by the steady momentum across the project area. Construction activities are advancing as planned across multiple sections of the site, reflecting the strong commitment and collaboration driving this important national project forward.

This also informs that, Its not that they cannot afford to pay the solutions we have. Infact some of them are very aware of trends just like we do. We are Kenyans and being proactive is a core trait amongst us especially as Nairobians. Their hesitation usually is a reflection of how their customers behave and the current state of doing business in the country. It has never been largely about ignorance. I met a client who actually knows about APIs and they own a Babyshop. It seems they are still amongst us and are aware of how deluded we are when we go to those VC funding events for SMEs when they are never included. We need to go back to the drawing board and redesign our problem solving curated for this market. With this I had to be outside Nairobi to see how Kenyans do business. While in Rwanda, I got to understand why. a Tanzanian friend kept mentioning that he likes how Kenyans do business. So I was concerned why he is so invested. Then He told me that a Kenyan never worries about operation costs, they just ensure that they position so well that both them, the government and their end customer shares the cost. And from this POV that is when i knew we have been dillusional all along.

I came to hard realization that we as Kenyan Developers we are extremely westernized. The influence we have from san fransisco marketing has made us un aware of what our market demands. We never talk to the SMEs owners, they are the ones who knows the expenditure and consumerism behavior of Kenyans at large. They have all the information, they may not explain it. My point is we have a huge gap, and I think the ISP guys are the only tech bros who actually understand Kenyan market. Maybe we should break down our software sales into their model of per day per hour or per week. Sticking to per month with a flat fee when your client tells you this month biashara haijakuwa sawa. They would pay only when they need it, otherwise they will always see it as an expense rather than a solution. We approach each other from a Kiburi point of view which is why we have stacked github full of solutions they need but cant pay for it, and they have problems knowing very well we cant solve fully. The Kenyan market is very flexible. It requires the creative mind not sticking to the same software template from Carlifornia. It wont work in Moi Avenue, it wont work in Kamkunji and it will be even worse in Kirinyaga road or Muthurwa. That is why I respect Pick Up mtaani logistics. These are the guys who studied the volatility of the delivery and logistics scene for online shops. They did not push a software at first, they pushed for pickup stations. I am learning these the hard way.

With high youth unemployment rates in Africa, the desired state is where each youth gets a job. However, there's a catch...most of these jobs don't exist today; and all the jobs today can't absorb all unemployed youths. It's upon those in existing roles in employment to work with entrepreneurs to create the jobs of tomorrow such that the factors of production can be bent into more formats to yield substantial returns for the youth to make a living. A job is not the end state. It's an additional factor of production, especially in Africa. It's a starting point to convert human, and capital resources into value. While a job held by an individual yields linear returns to the society, a partnership between an entrepreneur, and a company yields exponential returns to the economy. Bob understood this when scaling Safaricom. Smart partnerships scale a business while future proofing it.

You can tell when a builder stops pitching and starts diagnosing. Eddie Kago (@BasedKago) took the stage at @Web3Clubs and skipped the usual slide deck. He wasn't selling an app. He was fixing a broken system. Most agritech is like handing a man in the desert a gold-plated bucket. It is a nice tool, but it does not bring the water. Eddie is building the pipe. @SmartShambani uses ML to verify farm data so banks finally have a reason to lend. It turns "we hope this works" into "we know this works."

Whatever happened to "May I meet you?"

@Sir_Damilare @deriq_eth Sure, and steady wins the race.

Got to know Honeycoin processes Millions of Dollars in Volume daily using USDC on Base. GG @BasedKago @deriq_eth. It was one hell of a ride.

- @stchibie of @paycrest - @justvibesncode of @honeycoinapp - Dami of the streets Was so nice visiting Honeycoin's HQ yesterday.

New country, who dis? 🇰🇪 Owego is officially live in Kenya! You can now settle and transact on the app using KSH directly via M-Pesa. It’s seamless payments in your everyday currency, right at your fingertips.

@LionessAtEase @Sir_Damilare @Based_Africa @base You did great holding the fort! Thank you for your service 🫡

Closing a chapter For the past year, I’ve worked closely with @Sir_Damilare at @Based_Africa, driving ecosystem growth across Southwest Nigeria for @base. In that time, we: – Onboarded 27 early-stage products – Supported 12 mature products – Helped launch 10 mini apps and 4 AI agents – Ran hackathons and founder programs – Connected local founders to global incubators – Helped investors discover builders from South West Nigeria through my network and contents. Grateful to @Sir_Damilare and the wider @Based_Africa team for the opportunity, trust, and room to execute. Beyond the numbers, the experience reinforced something I’ve believed for years: Some of the most interesting crypto products today are being built and actively adopted in emerging markets. They’re just largely mispriced or overlooked. Not because demand is absent, but because distribution here doesn’t look like what most investors or global teams are used to. On-ground adoption is driven by: – Informal trust networks – Physical onboarding and education – Stablecoin-based use cases (payments, savings, FX) – Speed, access, and utility over “perfect” UX That’s the work I’ve spent the last few years doing: Helping early-stage products find users, building local onboarding systems, growing communities from the ground up, and connecting African founders to global opportunities. Now, I’m looking for my next role at the intersection of ecosystem building, early-stage product growth and African market distribution. Ideally with a; - protocol - crypto fund - infrastructure company - founder who needs an operator with deep local insight and execution experience. If that sounds like you — or you know someone building something relevant — my DMs are open. At the same time, while I look toward my next role, I’m starting a weekly editorial called On Ground. A written series exploring how crypto actually moves across Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia — through field observations, founder conversations, and real user behavior. Less theory. More reality. Using my experience building @blocstreets, I’m also building a product for Africa’s informal markets with a small team, and we’re currently looking for a frontend engineer to join as a contributing founder (equity only for now). wandeofweb3@gmail.com

@_clemens__ @XenBH Welcome back to the arena!

One year ago, I met @XenBH for a walk through Regent's Park in London, and we spent the next 90 minutes talking about bringing the world onchain, building wallets, and what ecosystems are getting right and wrong about the onchain economy. Xen had built the Roam wallet and been acqui-hired by @base to lead global growth. I had spent the past year building a consumer crypto super app in another ecosystem, and now came across an elite team putting capital and resources behind the same vision I'd been building toward. That walk in the park, the shared values we unearthed about one another, made joining forces with base a no-brainer. Why run toward your goal solo if you can sprint as a team. I met @jessepollak a few weeks later in Silicon Valley during Base Summit, and what stood out immediately was the leadership he embodied and the culture he had built: "everyone is a builder." Over the next year I had the privilege of putting theory to practice with the global growth team, building the structural rails to sustainably bring the world onchain. Starting in the UK, expanding to all of Europe alongside @AxelMtbr, @berkay_secil and @EvSlatts - with @saxenasaheb leading the wider team and letting us run our regions - we put into place an end-to-end ecosystem funnel: early-stage scouting at the university layer via student clubs we brought to life, post-hackathon support structures through Base Batches, and the R[3]sidency accelerator that put capital behind the most promising founders. Day to day I spoke to hundreds of builders daily - from intent-to-build to running profitable companies looking to accelerate onchain. Each conversation genuinely excited me about the shared permissionless future we were all contributing to. Often I felt like a player-coach sitting on the bench, shouting encouragement and commands from the sidelines while waiting for my substitution back onto the playing field. Last week's layoffs accelerated my path back. There has never been a better time to build. The infrastructure is in place, abundant, performant, and battle-tested. On-ramps and off-ramps exist in every major country in the world. User experience is nearing parity with existing consumer products. Well-funded operations across the entire stack are working on two things: robust scalable infrastructure and mass distribution. If you build onchain, you're building with the internet as your TAM. @coinbase and @base are going deep on the financial infrastructure of the onchain economy - tokenized assets, distribution, a performant chain to trade and use every asset. That leaves wide open the layer I've always cared about most: the consumer experiences programmable value makes possible, beyond finance. To everyone I've worked with - my DMs remain open, and I'll make sure any base-related concerns get to the right hands. To those building: see you in the arena.

In a historic feat, the Port of Lamu on Sunday evening welcomed the largest vessel ever to dock at any Port in East and Central Africa. The MV Baltimore Express, a colossal, measuring 369 meters in length overall, arrived from Oman’s Salalah Port. To put that size into perspective, the ship spans nearly the length of three football pitches with 69 meters to spare. Many regional ports would struggle to accommodate such a giant, but Lamu stood up to the challenge. With the port’s quay length of 400 meters per berth, MV Baltimore Express docked smoothly without any incident. The vessel operated by German shipping line Hapag-Lloyd, during her stay in Lamu handled restows of dangerous cargo by repositioning the DGs aboard the vessel in compliance to the International Maritime Organization. This call follows the earlier record set by a sister vessel MV Nagoya Express, a 335-meter container ship which docked at the Port of Lamu in August 2025. KPA’s General Manager Port of Lamu Capt. Abdulaziz Mzee welcomed the ship, noting the port’s proven ability to handle ultra-large vessels. “This call lifts Lamu’s profile on the global maritime map, and compares to some of the world’s most developed ports like Singapore, Rotterdam and Hamburg,” said the GM. What sets the Port of Lamu apart from other regional ports is its naturally deep harbor of 17.5 meters. This depth allows Panamax and post-Panamax ships to sail into the channel with minimal or no dredging. Many other African ports require constant dredging to deepen seabeds enough to accommodate mega ships and stay competitive. This natural advantage enables Lamu to rival the world’s most modern ports, positioning it not only as a transshipment gateway but also as a strategic hub capable of handling very high cargo volumes. Lamu has so far handled over 120 vessels since the start of the year, with more expected to call in the coming days. To complement this growth KPA is investing in modern equipment with the port expected to receive new cranes, terminal tractors and other cargo handling equipment in the course of the year. Equally Captain Aziz confirmed that ninety motor vehicles out of 5000 which had been discharged in March have already been evacuated from the port. As the global shipping industry evolves and ships continue to grow, the Port of Lamu stands uniquely ready. It is built for the future, not catching up to it. @SDoT_Kenya @TransportKE @mohamed_daghar @davis_chirchir

If you were recently affected by the Coinbase layoffs, Hurupay is hiring for growth roles - particularly in Asia and Europe.

@your_javaguy @venkat_s @ivar_grimstad @kenyanJug Congratulations!

My heart is full. Thank you everyone (speakers, organizers, attendees) for making the event a success.

@FlashcreditA @SmartShambani @Web3Clubs @Antugrow @kwekutech x.com/i/status/20531…

@BasedKago @SmartShambani @Web3Clubs @Antugrow @kwekutech Very interesting, link?

I shared our journey building @SmartShambani with the cracked builders at @Web3Clubs! We are working to digitize trust in agriculture to derisk microfinance, and microinsurance. The @Antugrow journey begins with discovering with precision what can grow where, and for how much. Find the full video on visitzelos dot com / community. Link below.

been intentionally drawing lots of traffic to visitzelos.com/community - its a wonderful part of the platform, builders need visibility

@xpeditionhubert @Web3Clubs @SmartShambani Thank you for documenting our journey!

Nairobi is very vibrant, with so many tech hubs and people building everywhere. Here at @Web3Clubs, I witnessed @BasedKago talk about his product @SmartShambani, Africa's First ML search engine for crop and livestock advisory. @BasedKago shares his vision for this tech! Watch the full video here: visitzelos.com/community

@Faruoq_sika @Web3Clubs @SmartShambani Thank you for showing up!

@Web3Clubs @BasedKago @SmartShambani was nice session

Eddie Kago’s ( @BasedKago ) session gave a look into building technology around actual everyday problems, @SmartShambani a search engine for crops, and livestock advisory.  He walked us through the thinking behind SmartShamba and how location based insights can help farmers make better decisions around crops and livestock.  A big part of the session focused on infrastructure, trust, and why verification matters in areas like agricultural credit across African markets.  Eddie also shared lessons from his experience working across ecosystem growth, decentralised infrastructure, and product development. One thing that stood out throughout the session was the importance of building with context.  Understanding the environment, the users, and the real problem first before rushing into the technology itself. Meaningful products usually start with understanding people well. #productdemos #demotuesdays #web3clubs