For the past one week, the over 100 Innovators taking part in the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon have been focusing their energies and resources on developing time and lifesaving financial inclusion solutions.
With just one day to the end of this year’s Women in FinTech Hackathon, the participants are putting their best feet forward and tying up all loose ends as they ready themselves for their final submissions on Thursday 17th August.
On Day Six, the teams dug deep into the workings of application programming interfaces (APIs).
According to IBM, an application programming interface or API is a set of defined rules that enable different applications to communicate with each other.
An API ‘acts as an intermediary layer that processes data transfers between systems, letting companies open their application data and functionality to external third-party developers, business partners, and internal departments within their companies.’
Paul Baker, the Principle Product Manager at INFITX took the teams through the workings of the Mojaloop APIs, showing them the different ways, they can integrate the Mojaloop family of APIs in their solutions.
“If your desire for Mojaloop knowledge is more technical, then try running a cut-down version of Mojaloop Locally where the API can be called and the logs of the micro-services interrogated. The Mojaloop Community supports various ways of running Mojaloop locally.”
In preparation for making their final submissions, the teams also had an in-depth pitching and presentation coaching session led by Flavia Eleanor Kasenge, the chief operating officer at EzeeMoney.
In her presentation, Kasenge defined pitching as how you describe the best version of yourself or your business; what you do, how long you have been doing it, and why you are the best at that particular business.
She noted that there are different kinds of pitching such as Elevator Pitch, Investors Pitch and Sales Pitch.
“When at a pitch, introduce yourself using catchy words, replace fear with confidence, be smart, and bring your A game. Stand out from the get-go because first impression is key. Do enough research and master your data –Have enough depth and clearly show an understanding of your business,” Kasenge said, adding;
“Importantly, end memorably; preferably with a life story of how you came up with the product. That conclusion can be as serious as that or as simplistic as a joke.”
Running for the 4th consecutive year, the Women in FinTech Hackathon is part of the broader Women in FinTech initiative that also includes a Summit and Incubator program; all implemented by HiPipo in partnership with Level One Project, Cyberplc Academy, Crosslake Technologies, INFITX, Ideation Corner and Mojaloop Foundation and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon will culminate into the Women in FinTech summit on 18th August 2023 where the best-performing teams and individuals will be announced and receive their share of the USD 10,000 collective prize money. This will be in addition to the winners automatically qualifying for the Women in FinTech Incubator program that will run from September until December 2023.
