HiPipo has today announced the opening of registration for the 2023 Women in FinTech Hackathon. The hackathon is open to women-led teams of 2 to 4 members across the East African region, with each team having at least 67 percent female composition.
Registration is open until the end of July and to register here is the LINK.
In a press statement, Charlotte Neeza, HiPipo FinTech Events Manager said, “The registration link is available and active until the end of July 2023. But because this is a very competitive, first-come-first-serve hackathon competition, we encourage all those interested to register at the earliest possible time.”
Neeza remarked that all interested participants only need to complete and submit the entry forms with details of their teams’ composition and the product they intend to innovate after which the organizing team will review each entry and revert.
The Women in FinTech Hackathon will culminate in the Women in FinTech summit on Aug 19 where the best-performing teams and individuals from across East Africa will be announced and receive their share of the USD$10,000 (approx. UGX37.2 million) collective prize money. This will be in addition to the winners automatically qualifying for the fully paid Women in FinTech Incubator program, receive mentorship from industry players & business leaders, and have access to network with fellow developers and facilitators from across the world.
The Women in FinTech Hackathon is part of HiPipo’s Include EveryOne Program which runs annually alongside the Women in FinTech Summit and Women in FinTech Incubator program as a way to address inequalities and empower women with the required digital and financial inclusion skills so that they can go out there; innovate, prosper, earn and develop their families and communities.
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 (fintech) products that are well-tailored to serve women and everyone. And indeed, the HiPipo Women in FinTech initiative is exceptionally supporting efforts toward closing the Gender Gap in Access to Technology, Skills, and Usage of Digital Financial Services.
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 fintech products that are transforming their communities while others have received seed capital from both the project and external contributors to further pursue their dreams.
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This success is thanks to HiPipo’s thoughtful Women Empowerment and Inclusion efforts, coupled with the commitment, collaboration, and active participation of its partners including Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Even so, all this may have remained a pipe dream had it not been for the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“It is fulfilling to witness the greatness that has come from this initiative. In the last two years, over 50 of our past participants completed their university degrees in software engineering and other computer science-related courses,” said Innocent Kawooya, the Chief Executive Offer of HiPipo — adding that “Many have conceived and developed amazing products, others are working tirelessly to roll out their innovations.”
Kawooya emphasized that it is the clear way of closing the gender skills gap in digital innovation and fintech spaces.
Kawooya also noted that they are looking at having an even bigger contribution to Women’s Financial Inclusion this year by including women across the East African region.
“In 2023, we’re looking at having even a bigger contribution to Women’s Financial Inclusion. As we did in 2022, we are including the entire East African region. We intend to decentralize the hackathon so that we give a fair chance to interested participants from across East Africa.”
The fourth edition of the annual Women in FinTech initiative will run between Aug 10th and Dec 8th, 2023. The hackathon will be held first from Aug 10-18 followed by the summit which will be held Aug 19 and will conclude with the Women in FinTech Incubator that will run from Sep 4 to Dec 8, 2023.
It is worth knowing that in between the Women in FinTech initiatives, HiPipo will also be holding the Digital & Financial Inclusion Summit and the Digital Impact Awards Africa on Nov 16 and Nov 17 respectively.
The Digital Impact Awards Africa recognizes, celebrates, and appreciates different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities. The awards are one of Africa’s most important gatherings of C-Level Executives, and senior Digital and IT executives. In addition, it promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion, and Cyber Security.
