MTN MoMo Hackathon: Three rewarded for innovative ideas on financial inclusion
The MTN MoMo Hackathon has come to an end with the top three teams of developers walking away with assorted cash prizes to further invest in their ideas that are set to accelerate financial inclusion in the country.
The two months long Hackathon executed by MTN MoMo Uganda in partnership with the Outbox hub attracted 149 applications who went through various checks and tests bringing the number down to 12 applicants from which the top three winners were selected.
Team e-wage, Team MpaMpe and Team M-Pay had the top 3 innovations that emerged as winners of the Hackathon that was concluded today at the Outbox hub in Kampala under the theme “Innovative financial and transactional applications”.
Team e-wage that came first walked away with the grand cash prize of $ 5,000, Team MpaMpe which came 2nd won $ 3,000 while the 3rd team, M-Pay won $ 2,000 courtesy of MTN MoMo Uganda. The money will be used as seed capital for the winners to invest in their innovations.
Speaking at the event, Richard Yego, the MTN MoMo Uganda managing director said that with more people appreciating digital financial services, such applications will further bridge the financial inclusion gap and deliver more seamless customer experiences.
"Tech-based financial solutions and applications are becoming increasingly necessary as more people are beginning to appreciate the use of such life-changing innovations. It is against this background that MTN decided to give third parties access to its mobile money programming Interface to enable them develop such vital solutions without facing the cost of building and maintaining new APIs," Yego said.
In his remarks, Richard Zulu, founding member and team lead at Outbox emphasized the importance of hackathons in creating interest and providing a foundation for software engineers and developers.
"Our mandate is to link developers and aspiring entrepreneurs to opportunities that expose them to learn about what other developers across MTN’s footprint and beyond are doing to inspire innovations that will drive Africa’s progress. I implore developers to utilize such opportunities to network as that is how learning and growth happens," Zulu said.
In addition to the cash prizes, the three selected teams will utilize the MTN MoMo open API to integrate their product into the current MTN MoMo offering, which will create a wider range of digital financial offerings for MTN’s customers.
However, all the twelve teams that participated in the pitch day will get access to the MTN Global Community Developer group where they will have first-hand experience on how to code for projects on a wider market.
