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HiPipo takes this apt opportunity to unveil the 2023 Digital Impact Awards Africa nominees. The release of the nominations follows the completion of both the entries’ submission and verification processes that have been ongoing since mid-July.

The shortlisted nominees come from hundreds of entries done through the nomination portal and direct digital submissions by potential contenders and their supporters.

The unveiling of the nominees effectively kicks off the voting process that will go on until Friday 17th November. While all nominees are winners, the overall winner per category will be determined by a combined public-jury vote.

Celebrating a decade of digital transformation, the 10^th edition of the Digital Impact Awards Africa is slated for 17^th November 2023 at Kampala Serena Hotel as part of the annual Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.

Digital Impact Awards Africa is a platform that promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion, and Cyber Security. The Awards recognize and celebrate stakeholders who are spearheading the use of digital mediums to serve communities. They further celebrate digital excellence across the continent; big or small, local or international.

On the other hand, the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit explores strategic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of Digital, ICTs, and Business. Special attention is paid to the safety of customers’ funds and the security of platforms in the Digital Financial Services ecosystem.

The 2023 summit will bring together hundreds of delegates including C-Level executives who are spearheading the scaling, adoption, and usage of digital and financial services across Africa, policymakers, young entrepreneurs, and innovators in the Digital and Financial Inclusion ecosystem. The summit will shine a spotlight on how businesses have recovered from the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Cyber Security threats among other key topics.

It will have over 50 speakers from government, multinationals, large enterprises, small and mid-sized enterprises, and start-ups. Additionally, the summit will offer a platform for informal businesses (like market vendors, smallholder farmers, sole proprietors, public transporters, e-commerce delivery agents, etc.)  

Both the Digital Impact Awards Africa and Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit are organized by HiPipo in partnership with Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies and generously supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here is the Full List of #DIAA2023 Nominations:

Community Digital Empowerment Excellence.

1. Church Offertory and Tithe Collection by EzeeMoney
2. Digital Messaging Platform for Catholic Dioceses by Cente Tech
3. MTN ACE-Tech
4. Oracle Academy
5. Tawaza Digital Varieties

Financial Inclusion Excellence.

1. Hospital Sente by Airtel Money, Prudential Uganda and Turaco
2. Kawu Smart Card by Kawu Uganda
3. MaMa’s Account by clinicPesa
4. MSacco by FutureLink Technologies
5. Questbanker by Quest Digital Finance  

Digital Banking Excellence.

1. ABSA Bank
2. Centenary Bank
3. DFCU Bank
4. Stanbic Bank
5. Standard Chartered Bank

Banking Innovation Excellence.

1. Cente On The Go Account by Centenary Bank
2. FlexiPay by Stanbic Bank
3. Mobile Banking Solution – ELMA by Craft Silicon
4. SC Shilingi Funds by Standard Chartered Bank
5. WENDI Digital Wallet by Post Bank

Community/MFI Banking Innovation Excellence.

1. Centenary Bank
2. Future Link Technologies
3. Letshego
4. Post Bank Limited
5. Pride Microfinance Limited

FinTech Innovation Excellence.

1. Hamwe Pay by Hamwe East Africa
2. Micro Merchant by Airtel Money.
3. MTN MoMo Open APIs
4. SafeCar by SafeBoda
5. SchoolPay by Service Cops
6. Xente Visa Card

Financial Services Digital Excellence.

1. Airtel Money
2. MFS Africa
3. MTN MoMo
4. Stanbic Bank 
5. Standard Chartered

Consumer Goods Digital Excellence.

1. Café Javas
2. Hariss International
3. Jude Color Solutions
4. Jumia Uganda  
5. Movit
6. StarTimes Uganda

Utilities and Government Services Digital Excellence.

1. NSSF
2. NWSC
3. Umeme
4. URA
5. URSB

Technology Services Digital Excellence.

1. Airtel
2. Cente Tech
3. Comviva
4. Ericsson
5. Huawei
6. MTN

Digital Campaign Excellence.

1. #KikoleForLess with FlexiPay 
2. #NoTuteeseOffline by SafeBoda
3. Beera Smart by Airtel Uganda
4. Beera Steady – Be Better by Next Media and Partners
5. Together We are Unstoppable by MTN Uganda

CEO of the Year.

1. Anne Juuko – Stanbic Bank
2. Dhimant Shah – Craft Silicon
3. Fabian Kasi – Centenary Bank
4. Japhet Aritho – Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited (AMCUL)
5. Richard Yego – MTN MoMo
6. Sanjay Rughani – Standard Chartered Bank

Digital Brand of the Year.

1. Airtel
2. Centenary Group
3. MTN Uganda
4. MultiChoice Uganda
5. Stanbic Bank
6. Standard Chartered Bank

Digital Brand of the Decade – 2013 to 2023.

1. Airtel
2. Centenary Group
3. Jumia
4. MTN Uganda
5. MultiChoice Uganda
6. NWSC
7. SafeBoda
8. Stanbic Bank
9. Standard Chartered Bank

Visit www.digital-impact-awards.com to cast your vote, today. 

A team of three engineering students from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) has won the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon.

The winners were announced at the 2023 Women in FinTech Summit presided over by Hon Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo, the Minister of State for ICT at Mestil Hotel, Kampala. The summit was the climax event for the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon which run from 10^th to 17^th August.

Named E-Parking, the winning team is made of three engineering students namely; Christine Amutuhaire, and Charity Ainembabazi; both doing Biomedical Engineering and Elian Mwesiga who is pursuing Software Engineering

Though in its early stages, their winning product; E-Parking is a financial technology-powered solution that will on launch ‘introduce a mobile app to revolutionize the parking experience in Ugandan cities’.

To win, these young innovators presented a functional minimum viable product (MVP) that clearly demonstrated how their digital platform would simplify parking processes and enhance resource management.

The E-Parking MVP has features such as QR Code-Initiated Parking, Real-Time Payments enabled by Mojaloop software, App Tokens for Payments and Session Alerts.

They beat stiff competition from more than twenty-five other teams, including BorePay and Business Banking Hub; which came second and third respectively.

“We are super excited. We definitely believed in our product but didn’t see this win coming. The Hackathon has been mind-blowing. This win has vindicated our solution. We intend to continue pursuing it and eventually launch it. We thank all the participants for their health and positive competition. In a special way, we thank HiPipo and its partners for organizing a proper Women in FinTech event,” an overjoyed Christine Amutuhaire, the E-Parking Team leader noted following their victory.

BorePay the team that came second is developing a USSD-based payment platform that will guarantee safe water for rural communities through continuous collection of boreholes’ repair and maintenance fees from the residents in addition to other forms of fundraising while Business Banking Hub offers an inclusive bulk payment solution for the unbanked informal sector.

In her remark, Hon Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo applauded HiPipo for using Technology to champion women empowerment, noting that the government will continue to support initiatives intended to empower Women and the Youth.

“Even as Uganda boasts a female population of 50.71% in 2020, women are extremely represented among the unbanked. They face many challenges, notably in accessing digital technology, acquiring skills, and availing financial products,” Hon Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo said.

She explained: “HiPipo’s Women in FinTech training steps in to bridge this gap. We are proud of HiPipo and its partners for their commitment to levelling the field. Their dedication pushes Africa closer to tapping into its full digital dividend, ensuring all benefit from digital financial services. The collaboration between HiPipo and the Ministry of ICT is pivotal. It is not just about offering services; it is about understanding the deep-rooted social norms that obstruct women’s financial rise. This insight, complemented by research from the Level One Project, offers a deeper perspective on these challenges.”

Top Seven Teams.

The top seven teams were E-Parking – 4m, BorePay – 2m, Business Banking Hub – 1.5m, FinHub – 1m, HPaysa – 1m, Tax on Point – 1m and Simbula Tugende – 1m.

“We received over 100 submissions from which we shortlisted 30 teams from Kampala, Mbarara, Kabale, Kisoro Gulu and Nairobi. On day one of the hackathon, two teams did not turn up. We then remained with 28 teams that actively participated until the final presentations’ day when one team dropped out owing to an emergency that required their attention and physical presence,” Charlotte Neeza, the HiPipo FinTech Event Manager said, adding;

“The remaining twenty-seven teams met the judges on Thursday and demonstrated their solutions. All these twenty-seven teams are FinTech Champions. Because all the twenty-seven teams are winners, they are sharing the USD 10,000 collective prize.”

Running for the 4th consecutive year, this Hackathon is part of HiPipo’s broader Women in Fintech initiative that also includes a Summit and Incubator program.

“The cardinal purpose of these inter-twined initiatives is to champion women’s financial inclusion through active participation in the initiation, development, and rolling out of financial technology products that are well-tailored to serve women and everyone,” Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo CEO said, adding;

“We are exceptionally supporting efforts towards closing the Gender Gap in Access to Technology, Skills, and Usage of Digital Financial Services. Several of our Women in FinTech Alumni are currently running sustainable Tech companies. We implore the 2023 winners and all participants to continue with their innovations, complete them and launch them.”

Between 2020 and 2022, the Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit, and Incubator project attracted over 4,000 participants and directly trained more than 300 women. Through dedicated mentorship, many of these Women have since graduated as Software Engineers and Computer Science specialists. Some have ideated, developed, and launched Financial Technology products that are transforming their communities while others have received seed capital from both the project and external contributors to further pursue their dreams.

The Women in FinTech initiative is implemented by HiPipo in partnership with Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Crosslake Technologies and Ideation Corner and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

After a long week of solutions’ ideation and development, the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon teams have today pitched their final minimum viable products – MVPs to the Hackathon Jury.

The over 30 teams were each given up to 10 minutes to demonstrate how their developed solutions work. The young and nascent innovators used this time to wow the Hackathon Jury of six judges.

Of the six judges, three attentively followed the presentations physically whilst others followed the proceedings remotely. For each developed solution, the judges were looking out for innovativeness, business value, feasibility, potential impact, and integration with Mojaloop Open Source Software.

The judges also paid a keen interest to adherence to Level One Project Principles such as Same Day Settlement, Realtime Payments, Tiered KYC, and Transaction Irrevocability.

“The fourth edition of Women in Fintech Hackathon has embodied the transformative power of women in technology. Through a systematic approach, the Hackathon has tackled real-world Fintech product development; from problem statement and business case formulation to solution design, prototyping, and MVP dry run. This structured process fostered collaboration, innovation, and skill growth, all while emphasizing inclusivity,” Cleopatra Kanyunyuzi, the Hackathon Lead Facilitator and CEO of Club Tangaza, adding:

“The hackathon’s success has showcased how diverse teams of women can break barriers and lead change in the Fintech sector. This event also highlighted the boundary-less nature of innovation. Such initiatives hold the key to a more inclusive, innovative future for Fintech.”

But even after the final pitches, there was still some more time for learning. Stella Lugalambi, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Hamwe East Africa tipped the participants on Overcoming Challenges and Building Resilience.

Mrs Lugalambi urged the young innovators to consider formalizing their FinTech solutions through registration and in the long run, getting regulator licenses.

“Right now, Financial Technology is regulated by the Bank of Uganda. As an innovator, find out where your product falls and understand what is required to register it. Even if you don’t get a license immediately, at least you will know what is required when that time comes.”

She urged the participants to remain, firm, resilient and focused on achieving their dreams.

“There are indeed problems to do with funding and digitization. Most of your target audience doesn’t even have smartphones and computers, but this should not discourage you. For whatever you are doing, do your best to find ways of funding your businesses without seeking commercial loans fast as they put a lot of pressure on start-ups.”

Overall Winners to be known at Women in FinTech Summit.

With the Hackathon curtains coming down; there was a visible sense of anticipation; with several teams very optimistic and in high spirits while others were evidently anxious.

Even though all participants are financial inclusion champions, the overall winners of this year’s Women in FinTech Hackathon will be announced and receive their share of the USD 10,000 collective prize money at the 2023 Women in FinTech summit on Friday, 18^th August at Mestil Hotel, Kampala.

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.

 The past week has been exciting and action-packed. We have seen teams develop their nascent ideas into minimum-viable products. The majority of the teams have indeed put in so much effort and we really appreciate this. To us, all the teams are victors. They have submitted their final MVPs and we shall tomorrow get to know the overall winners.

The Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator Program is 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.

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 17^th 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.

Driven by passion and an unsatisfied appetite for success, the over 100 Innovators participating in the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon have their priorities well set out.

It is this desire to succeed that is keeping most of the participants awake throughout the night; some turning the Hackathon venue into their temporary home, taking short naps on wooden desks and the floor before waking up to resume their financial technology solutions’ design and development.

With the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon entering the final and most decisive days, the Teams were introduced to minimum viable products (MVP) on Day 5.

A product Plan defines a minimum viable product, or MVP, as a product with enough features to attract early-adaption customers and validate a product idea early in the product development cycle.

According to Dorothy Kabarozi, a Full Stack Software Engineer and Facilitator of the Women in FinTech Hackathon, the creation of minimum viable products (MVPs) raises the developers’ confidence and opens multi opportunities for partnerships and possible funding ‘because creating an MVP, even if it’s a simplified version, can instil a sense of achievement and sureness.’

“In a Hackathon like this, MVPs encourage participants to think creatively and find innovative ways to address challenges. This empowerment comes from the realization that they have the capability to design solutions that can make a difference in financial inclusion, benefiting themselves and others, “Dorothy Kabarozi said.

She added: “MVPs inspire developers like the young women and men we have here to pursue further opportunities in the tech field and beyond, knowing they have the ability to contribute meaningfully. Lastly, MVPs allow participants to demonstrate the tangible impact of their ideas. This can lead to partnerships, funding opportunities, or further development to scale the solution, which in turn can have a lasting impact on financial inclusion and empowerment.”

Mentorship Sessions.  

Osbert Osamai, the Head ICT Advisory, Research & Strategy at Centenary Technology Services, was the morning mentor and presented on key skills for effective Digital Transformation, urging the teams to interest themselves in learning more support skills as these would complement their competencies in products and solutions development.

“Away from developing great solutions, you need project & product management, communication, decision-making and digital marketing skills. You need emotional intelligence to know what to say when, how and why. You must continue to learn as this will aid your growth. Importantly, continue to seek collaborations and possible partnerships.”

Lyn Tukei, the Communications and Public Relations Manager at Capital Markets Authority, Uganda, took on the PR and Marketing Strategy training. In her afternoon presentation, she noted that successful brands are built by consumers, not companies.

“Ultimately, it’s the way consumers perceive a brand that defines it. It doesn’t matter what you think your brand promises. The only thing that matters is how consumers perceive your brand,” Tukei said, adding:

“You need to work to develop consumer perceptions that accurately reflect your brand or your brand is doomed to limited growth potential.”

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, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Crosslake Technologies and Ideation Corner 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.