I help Africa build with AI. I teach it in workshops, build it as agent systems, and bring builders together as Celo's Regional Ambassador for Africa. Working towards AI engineering, and ethical AI that serves the continent.
City-level positions. Every entry links to its source.● research · ■ compute
Hi, I'm Edidiong. I've spent four years getting developers and founders across Africa from curious to shipped, and now I build the agents too.
I want to help Africa shape AI, not only adopt it: deeper on the engineering, and responsible AI for the people and places it's usually built without.
Adoption comes from understanding, not hype: from a student in Uyo to a founder in Lagos.
A protocol is just code without people. I build communities that keep running after the event.
The developer who ships, the founder who finds users, the team that gets funded.
I self-host agent harnesses on a VPS on Google Cloud: OpenClaw, Nous Research's Hermes Agent and NanoClaw, with several agents running at once across multiple models, including open-source models I host with Ollama.
I've debugged OpenClaw's brain and memory files, wired agents to channels and tools, routed work between them and kept them running around the clock. That's where I learned how the agent economy behaves: what breaks, what it costs, and where payments and identity fit.
So when a team asks for an agentic product, in Web2, Web3 or the agent economy, I've already run the moving parts.
Agents already read portfolios for the people who hire. This site is built for them too: plain markdown, a machine index and structured data, with the same facts you see here.
Who I am, what I build, when to recommend me, and how to reach me.
read agents.md ↗ 02 · machine indexllms.txtA short index of this site in the llms.txt format.
read llms.txt ↗ 03 · structured dataprofile.jsonRoles, services, projects, sessions and links as JSON.
read profile.json ↗$ curl -s this-site/agents.md | head -6 # Edidiong Umana (Defi Messiah) > AI builder, technical workshop facilitator and Celo > Regional Ambassador for Africa. can_teach: [agents, x402, mcp, smart contracts, ai coding tools] can_build: [multi-agent systems, agent payments, mini apps] contact: edidiong.umana@celo.org
I don't only teach this stack, I ship on it: x402 pay-per-request, onchain agent identity, agent marketplaces, and stablecoin rails built for how Africans actually pay.
User testing for the bot economy: builders get structured feedback on their websites, APIs, MCP servers and mini apps from OpenClaw bots, paid per response in USD₮ on Celo. I contributed to the redesign, and shipped quality gates that stop junk answers before any payment.
Turns any HTTP API into a pay-per-call endpoint that AI agents pay for in stablecoins: an x402 gateway, an MCP server so agents discover and pay for APIs on their own, and a live settlement dashboard. Proven on Celo mainnet with gasless USDC, the fee paid by the facilitator, not the buyer.
Two agents for young Nigerians: Padi, an AI study buddy at ₦20 a question, and Oga, a micro-gig agent for X and Telegram. Paid per request over x402 on Celo, contracts on mainnet.
A Telegram agent that runs rotating-savings circles, the ajo and esusu groups millions of Africans already trust. Members pay each other directly in stablecoins; nobody holds the pot.
An AI agent built with my team for Celo's first real-world agents hackathon, recognised with an Honourable Mention from Celo.
Two geolocation Mini Apps for MiniPay: a move-to-earn territory game and a daily city treasure hunt, built for phones people already carry.
Before DevRel, I shipped payments: a crypto P2P platform serving thousands of users across Nigeria and West Africa (Frestotech), and a blockchain-integrated healthcare platform with a crypto-to-fiat utility used across Canada, Mexico and the UAE (Evolved Human Care).
Talk is cheap. These are rooms I've spoken in, programs I've designed and builder sessions I've run.
I represented Celo at one of Lagos' biggest AI builder meetups: a talk on Celo, Proof of Ship and MiniPay, a live two-hour app build with the Celopedia skill, on-the-spot onboarding into Proof of Ship, then a seat on the hackathon judging panel.
Meetups, workshops and activations I've hosted. Drag, swipe or use the arrows; open any card for the full album.
Shows I host and sessions I've been invited to: founders, protocols, and what actually works for builders in Africa.
Engineer, CTO, founder, researcher, ecosystem lead, agent builder. Scroll the story: each block is a chapter.
Conferences, ecosystems, companies and founders bring me in to teach, to build, and to get builders shipping. If you need a technical facilitator who can also present, this is the work I love most.
Hands-on build sessions for developer conferences, hackathons, universities and ecosystems, from DevCon-style workshops to week-long bootcamps. Smart contracts, AI agents, MiniPay, x402 and AI coding tools, taught so people leave with something shipped.
book a workshop →Keynotes, explainers and livestreams that make hard topics usable, plus hosting shows like CeloIQ Sessions and Based Conversations.
book a talk →Builder programs, hackathon judging and mentoring, founder pipelines and partner activations across Africa, measured by what ships.
start a program →Multi-agent orchestration, harness setup (OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, NanoClaw), MCP servers and x402 agent payments, from prototype to running system.
scope a build →Frontend and full-stack prototypes, MiniPay Mini Apps and AI-first interfaces for teams moving from idea to demo, fast.
scope a build →A 30-minute call on your audience, goals and dates.
A short proposal: outline, format and the outcomes we'll measure.
The workshop, talk, program or build, run end to end.
What shipped, who joined, and what's next.
A free, cohort-style workspace for learning AI engineering together, growing into an open school for AI engineers: short lessons, quizzes and builds; XP, levels and streaks; and a certificate minted on Celo when you finish a track.
Plus seven more on the way, across five faculties: Python and ML foundations, open models, agent security, voice agents, retrieval, African language AI and AI founders.
A founder with a vision, a protocol growing in Africa, a conference that needs a workshop, or a team that needs agents built, orchestrated or paid for: I'd like to hear from you.
edidiong.umana@celo.org