As part of our continuous efforts to not only improve the quality and variety of digital financial services, with a special emphasis on those that cater for the unbanked and underserved, but also to ensure that the delivery of these services offers rewards to the innovators, HiPipo sought to build on the gains made from the 2nd Women-in-FinTech Hackathon & Summit. And this we have successfully done by engaging the Hackathon’s top teams in the inaugural Women-in-FinTech Incubator.
The essence of the Incubator is to empower the innovators with entrepreneurial and operational skills to complement their already formidable technical acumen. Thus, over the course of 90 days, the Incubator participants have been part of multiple online sessions and face-to-face group consultations, with even a cocktail thrown in for good measure. The facilitators, who included HiPipo CEO Innocent Kawooya and Ideation Corner Founder Damali Ssali, covered a vast range of topics to ready the participants for the business journey ahead. Core to the Incubator was to create linkages between the Level One Project principles and how they can be the firm foundation on which a successful FinTech vehicle is built.
We at HiPipo are glad that March 8th, the International Women’s Day, has served up a fantastic opportunity. In conjunction with the Ideation Corner, we intend to also use that day as the conclusion of the Incubator. It was Damali Ssali, who recently ascended to the Ambassadorial role for Uganda at the United Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organisation (WEDO), and is now also an Advisory Board Member of the Africa Continental Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who helped us shape the idea.
It is greatly symbolic for all of us that the day set aside to remind all that women must be given the opportunities to fulfill their potential, that all forms of discrimination and sexism that have been placed in their path need to end, and that the world will only truly bridge its development gaps if women are fully brought into the innovation space, syncs perfectly with what the Women-in-FinTech Hackathon & Summit in particular and indeed the HiPipo Include Everyone program in general, stands for- to break all biases that hinder the acquisition and adoption of life changing digital financial technology.
And to all those that have successfully taken part, we can assure you that this is just the beginning. HiPipo will continue to be there for you as you set forth to conquer the world with your innovations. Our promise of service is the least you deserve for choosing to make the world a better place through the power of digital financial technology. So handing you your certificates on March 8th is just another landmark in our shared journey. Congratulations, dear friends!