Day Three of the #WomenInFinTech #LevelOneProject Hackathon has successfully ended with discussions focusing on why young innovators must draw proper business cases and plans if they are to effectively manage their projects.
Day three training was led Catherine Namara; a telecommunications engineer, project management expert, an alumna of the G4G (Girls4Girls) STEM and the current head of fundraising and strategy at Girls4Girls.
Catherine Namara told the over 70 innovators taking part in the hackathon that they must get mentorship from people who have done amazing things and have been able to transcend through different levels of work.
“Reach out to stars because that is when your product is going to get into that edge cutting element. When you get to a person who has been doing mobile money payments, they can give you some critical information to take your product further,” she said.
Ms Namara stressed the need for developers to understand what need/s their innovations seek to solve, saying that companies were no longer investing in things that don’t have facts about.
“Every single idea has to have facts. You have to do research before you even get into prototyping. One step at a time then you realise that things are not that tough. You must always plan well and also communicate effectively with all your stakeholders,” she said.
The week-long Hackathon, organized by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, Modusbox, Mojaloop and Level One Project, will culminate into the Women in FinTech summit on Friday, October 15th, 2021 where the three top teams will be announced and get to share USD5,000 in prizes in addition to being part of a 90-day Business Incubator Program.
The 2021 #LevelOneProject #WomenInFinTech Hackathon has 17 women led teams and over 70 participants altogether. The teams are coming up with financial inclusion solutions that address their community needs, aided by Level One Project principles and latest technologies.
Empowering Innovators
HiPipo is proud to remain one of the continent’s premier advocates for the creation, dissemination and adoption of digital financial services, and we remain highly enthusiastic to provide the ways and means for our innovators to fully develop solutions that will collectively lead millions of our people to better lives and improved livelihoods.
The inaugural Women in FinTech initiative in 2020 exceeded expectations and left no doubt that women are ready to play a starring role in the digital financial services space and can fill the product gap the sector currently contends with.
All the 15 participating teams in 2020 presented excellent ideas, and HiPipo is more than pleased to reveal that it supported three (3) of them to grow into startups, each with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that’s ready for the market, which was a success to an extent that they went on to take part in the recently-concluded 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.
