Apply
Applications for the Founding Cohort are open.
30–40 places. Closing 30th November, 2026.
Who can apply
There is no minimum qualification and no required job title. What we look for:
- Two or more years of professional experience in any relevant field: compliance, law, risk, AML, fintech, technology, policy, research, economics or entrepreneurship. Graduate students may apply for a limited number of merit places.
- A demonstrable bias toward finishing things. Show us something you built, shipped, wrote or led.
- Genuine availability for 10–12 hours a week across sixteen weeks. Please be honest with yourself about this.
- Working English. Materials are in English. We actively want Francophone and Lusophone applicants and will support where we can.
- Based anywhere in Africa, or working on African markets from elsewhere.
You do not need prior digital asset experience. That is the entire point.
Five stages
1 · Application
A structured form, your CV, a 500-word motivation statement, and one referee. Roughly 40 minutes if you've thought about it beforehand.
2 · Written task (30% of your score)
A timed analytical exercise on a real regulatory question. No preparation required and no right answer, we're assessing how you reason, structure and write under constraint.
3 · Panel interview (35%)
A competency and motivation conversation with the Selection Committee and a faculty member. Around 45 minutes.
4 · Track fit (20%)
Your track preference, portfolio and prior work.
5 · Cohort construction (15%)
After individual scoring, we build the cohort against jurisdiction, sector, gender and discipline targets, drawing from everyone above the qualifying threshold.
What we score
- Analytical capability
- 20
- Domain relevance
- 15
- Motivation and clarity of purpose
- 15
- Implementation orientation
- 15
- Collaboration and coachability
- 10
- Communication
- 10
- Leadership potential
- 10
- Contribution to the cohort
- 5
Gates: a minimum of 3 out of 5 on analytical capability and on motivation, a verified referee, and no unresolved integrity concern.
A candid note on “implementation orientation”: this is the criterion that most often decides borderline applications. We are looking for evidence that you finish things. A shipped side project, a policy you drafted, a process you fixed, a team you ran, a paper you published. Length of CV is not the same thing.
What it costs
A USD 100 application fee, and USD 2,000 tuition if you are offered and accept a place. Apply on or before 31st October, 2026 and tuition drops 30%, to USD 1,400.
USD 100
Application fee
Payable on submission. Covers assessment of the written task and the panel process.
USD 2,000
Programme tuition
Payable only if you are offered and accept a place. Instalments available.
USD 1,400
Early-application tuition
A 30% reduction for applications submitted on or before 31st October, 2026.
- Application fee
- USD 100, per application, per cycle. Non-refundable once assessment begins.
- Programme tuition
- USD 2,000 for sixteen weeks, plus the twelve-month alumni year.
- Early-application discount
- 30% off tuition for applications submitted on or before 31st October, 2026: USD 1,400.
- Instalment plan
- 50% on acceptance, 50% before the start of Week 5. Available on request.
- Public sector: regulators, central banks, FIUs, ministries
- Prioritised for partial scholarship
- Academic and graduate merit places
- Partially funded, competitively assessed
- Private sector professionals
- Substantially discounted, needs and merit assessed
- Employer-sponsored seats
- Invoiced to the employer: talk to us
If cost is the reason you're hesitating, apply anyway and tell us in the application. Scholarships and needs-assessed reductions are assessed separately, and can be combined with the early-application discount.
Timeline
- 1st October, 2026
- Applications open
- 20th October, 2026
- Information session 1 · register
- 31st October, 2026
- Early-application deadline · 30% tuition discount
- 10th November, 2026
- Information session 2 · register
- 30th November, 2026
- Applications close, 23:59 WAT
- 07th December, 2026
- Written task issued
- 14th - 18th December, 2026
- Panel interviews
- 25th December, 2026
- Offers issued · 5-day acceptance window
- 28th December, 2026
- Onboarding and diagnostic
- 04th January, 2027
- Orientation
- 16th April, 2027
- Demo Day & Graduation Summit
The application form
Roughly 40 minutes if you've thought about it beforehand.
The Founding Cohort happens once.
Founding Cohort
Questions before you submit?
Ask the programme directly, or read the plain-language FAQ first.
Applications close 30th November, 2026.