Celebrating Our Faculty: The Heart of Btrust Builders
Behind every successful Btrust Builders cohort is a team of dedicated faculty members who go above and beyond to shape the learning journey. This year, our faculty were a monumental part of our courses, from developing the curriculum to walking side by side with participants through our various pathways.
What makes this especially meaningful is that most of our faculty are Btrust Builders alumni themselves. They’ve come full circle, returning to teach, mentor, and inspire the next wave of developers.
Today, we celebrate each of them for their unique contributions.
Peter Tyonum
Peter, an open-source contributor and cohort one Btrust Builders alumnus, has been instrumental in the Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK) project. His work on bdk-cli, wallet APIs, and documentation has raised the bar for quality and reliability in Bitcoin libraries. Through his contributions, Peter is advancing open source with consistency and collaboration.
Raphael Eyerin
From military service to music, film, and now tech entrepreneurship, Raphael’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. As the Founder and CEO of Clooza, he is redefining how people discover and experience events, both virtual and in person. His ability to weave creativity and technology together brings a refreshing energy to our faculty and shows participants what it means to innovate fearlessly.
Theophilus Isah
Theo leads with vision as the CEO of Mavapay, a company pioneering payment solutions built on Bitcoin Lightning. Beyond that, he contributes to Nodegaze, an open-source observability tool for node operators. His entrepreneurial and technical leadership reflects the ethos of pushing boundaries while keeping innovation open and accessible.
Jennifer Ezeobi
Jennifer is a software engineer driven by a passion for financial inclusion. With her clear vision and dedication, she reminds us that technology has a purpose: to open doors for those who have long been left out. Her presence in the faculty ensured that participants not only learned code but also understood the human impact of their work.
Chinonso Amadi (50sats)
Chinonso builds systems that don’t just run, they thrive under pressure. His focus on intelligent decentralized financial systems using AI and Bitcoin speaks to the future of innovation in this space. As a faculty member, his work challenges participants to think beyond functionality and aim for resilience and intelligence in what they build.
Solomon Eze
A software engineer at Mavapay and an OSS contributor, and Builders cohort 2 alumnus, Solomon is steadily carving his path toward financial engineering. His commitment to advancing projects like Mavapay is matched by his generosity in mentoring the next wave of Builders.
Jamal ERRAKBI
Jamal is Btrust grantee and an open-source contributor to the rust-bitcoin project. He also simplifies Bitcoin concepts through platforms like Decoding Bitcoin and Bitcoin Illustrated. His dual focus on technical excellence and education has made him a standout faculty member, ensuring participants not only understand Bitcoin but can also explain it to others.
Simon Murgoh
Simon, cofounder of BitDevs Nairobi, is a builder at heart. Whether teaching Bitcoin developers, running meetups, or working on tools like the Stratum V2 benchmarking tool, his dedication runs deep. Simon connects grassroots communities with global Bitcoin development, embodying what it means to build locally while thinking globally.
Olutobi Adeyemi
With nearly a decade of software engineering experience, Tobi has been contributing to open-source projects since 2019. His work on the Stratum protocol and his role as a Genesis Builder set a solid example for participants. Tobi brings both depth and history to our faculty, grounding the program in experience.
Munirat Olayiwola
Munirat is passionate about scalable systems, with expertise in transaction processing, API development, and Bitcoin/Lightning infrastructure. Her technical strength, coupled with her dedication to mentoring, ensured that participants saw what excellence looks like in practice.
Omoyemi Arigbanla
Omoyemi is a software engineer and Bitcoin advocate who bridges real-world needs with the vision of a Bitcoin-powered future. Deeply involved in practical applications of Bitcoin, he also contributes to education and adoption across emerging markets. His work reminds us that Bitcoin is as much about people as it is about code.
Joseph Murgor
With eight years of software development experience across Rust, Golang, and PHP, Joseph has built fintech solutions across Africa. His passion for Bitcoin education and adoption, particularly in creating ways for people to earn satoshis, makes him an invaluable faculty member, linking technical skill with real-world financial empowerment.
Ifeanyichukwu Amajuoyi
With over seven years of technical experience, Ifeanyichukwu is deeply involved in building on Bitcoin and Lightning. His active contributions to the Bitcoin open-source ecosystem inspired participants to see themselves as part of something bigger: a global, collaborative effort.
Nagasha Jemimah
A Bitcoin developer, educator, and community organizer, Nagasha is passionate about building tools and teaching others. From leading the Kampala Bitcoin Developers meetups to supporting student learning in our pathways, she shows how education and open source go hand in hand.
Isaack Mungui Njama
Isaack is a software engineer with deep expertise in TypeScript and Rust. His work with Bitsacco on community-driven savings and his contributions to Fedimint highlight his focus on real-world financial tools. As a co-leader of BitDevs Nairobi and a writer of technical articles, Isaack exemplifies what it means to build, teach, and empower at the same time.
Edwin Kareo
With over a decade in software engineering and a passion for cross-border payments in Africa, Edwin brings invaluable experience to the faculty. His insight into financial systems ensures that participants see the bigger picture of how Bitcoin can transform economies.
Abba Adamu
A graduate of Cohort 3 and the 2025 BOSS Fellowship, Abba is a contributor to projects like rust-nostr and Polar. Coming from a React background and now deeply engaged in Rust, his journey shows the power of continuous learning. His teaching ability also makes him a natural mentor for Builders.
Dedan Ndungu
Dedan is making Bitcoin fun and accessible through projects like LudoSats, a Ludo game powered by Bitcoin. His focus on gaming as a gateway to Bitcoin adoption shows that innovation can be playful while still being impactful.
A Collective Effort
This faculty team represents the very best of what Btrust Builders stands for; collaboration, innovation, and giving back. From developing curriculum to guiding participants through challenges, they worked as one body, complementing each other’s strengths and supporting the Btrust Builders team throughout.
Alongside them, our mentoring faculty, including Btrust grantees Abubakar Sadiq Ismail, Oghenovo Usiwoma, Enigbe Ochekliye, Tobechi Chukwuleta, Itoro Ukpong, and Abdullahi Yunus, played an important role in supporting Builders, especially those in the BOSS pathway. We also recognize Espen, who has been an avid mentor and supporter of the program and its students since 2023. Their guidance and encouragement have been invaluable in helping Builders sharpen their skills and grow into confident contributors.
We are proud to celebrate them, not only as individuals with remarkable stories but as a collective that has shaped this year’s success.
Learn More & Get Involved
Btrust Builders is Btrust’s comprehensive engineering program designed to train experienced software developers in Africa to contribute to open-source Bitcoin & Lightning development. Our program offers an immersive learning experience for engineers looking to build their competencies and portfolio in Bitcoin & Lightning development, and a ramp to build a sustainable (funded) career contributing to open-source Bitcoin projects.
Interested in joining us? Join the waitlist for our upcoming pathway cohorts and start your journey with Btrust Builders.
