Emmanuel Kintu rounded off his talk on digital camera settings, touching on the aspects of exposure, shutter speed, aperture diameter and ISO (International Standards Organisation). His presentation, as usual, was furnished with a variety of images to illustrate what he was explaining.
Arthur talked about four categories of value: personal, spiritual, family and career. He again stressed how all are interlinked, and should not be developed independent of each other.
Steven Kimuli’s discussion this time round looked at the things a company (or even an individual) needs to do in regards to branding in order to stand out against competitors. This includes one stepping out of their own space and concentrating on what they are doing, and taking time to get to know both the key players and influencers in their industry.
Innocent Kawooya introduced Tiered KYC as the week’s Principle to concentrate on. He thus highlighted the importance of the innovators understanding their target and/or market. This they should do to the best of their ability, and know that it is a never-ending process to which a fair bit of resources should always be readily dedicated.
The aspect of the Social Venture Business Model George discussed today was the value proposition. He described how it is 2-way: on one hand there’s the promise by the service provider to the client that what the former puts forth will be of value. And on the client’s side there is the belief that this value will be delivered, experienced and/or acquired. This’ important for the innovators, for it will always be necessary for them to understand what their clients need, and thus what is expected of them to deliver. Or provide value, you could say.
Continuing on mass communication, Francis defined and discussed three types of it: journalism, advertising and public relations. He illustrated the differences between the three, specifically how all might target the same individuals, but are expected to elicit different reactions.
Emma started his talks on the Fundamentals of Photography, first by getting the opinions of those in attendance on what they believe photography to be. Then in his own explanation, Emma stressed how light is central to the concept of photography. He next touched on what exposure is.
Referring to all that had been spoken, Innocent illustrated how HiPipo’s own initiatives and ventures, including 40 Days 40 FinTechs, the very Women-in-FinTech Hackathon the participants had been involved in, and indeed the ongoing Incubator itself, were run along many of the principles of the Social Venture Business Model. Proper execution of these initiatives needed careful application of various types of mass communication. And, of course, documentation was nothing without photography executed in a manner both skillful and timely.
Consideration of the above is what has helped HiPipo make tremendous headway in advocating for and promoting Same Day Settlement, and indeed The Level One Project in general. They should thus also matter to the participants as they set off on their entrepreneurial journey.
Kasakya George, who you can now call the ‘Social Venture Business Model Canvas Guy’, further defined the model, this time introducing and defining what a social good is, and how the budding entrepreneurs have to take time to look at their purpose for the business and decide whether it is, well, fit for purpose. A clear realisation on how they hope to help their clients might necessitate a ‘system change’, a new model that calls for a more altruistic approach in order to bring onboard those that need the service the most.
Francis introduced the concept of mass communication, defining it and illustrating how it goes hand in hand with mass media. He also touched on two key theories of mass communication (magic bullet and agenda-setting), and asked the participants to take time to understand how they and their products and services fit into the mass communication and mass media ecosystem.
Arthur further expounded on how important values are to the worker and innovator. As one goes through personal growth, there comes a time where they seamlessly transfer that growth, with the values therein included, into the products they create and the organisations they work for. Needless to say, better people make better products, and are better attuned to the needs of those they are supposed to serve.
Innocent Kawooya, CEO – HiPipo concluded the session by urging the participants to remember that all that was being shared has to be aligned with the principle of Same Day Settlement. How they set up as a business, how they communicate, and the values they cherish as an enterprise need to be in service to this principle, and indeed all the others, as will be discussed in time.
Standard Chartered Bank was yesterday announced the 2021 Digital Brand of the year. To win this Award, Standard Chartered Bank beat competition from Stanbic Bank and Centenary Bank that came second and third respectively. As such, Standard Chartered Bank retained the same prize it won in 2020.
Digital Impact Awards Africa is a platform that promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion and Cyber security. Precisely, the Awards seek to recognize, celebrate and appreciate different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities.
The 8th Digital Impact Awards Africa were held on Friday, 10th December at Mestil Hotel, Kampala as part of this year’s Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit organized by HiPipo and supported by Level One Project, Mojaloop, ModusBox and Crosslake Technologies.
The Digital and Financial Inclusion summit explored the strategic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of Digital, Information Technology and Business with special attention to the safety of customers’ funds and security of platforms in the financial technology industry. The summit discussed at length the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on the general business ecosystem and what players must do to recover.
This year’s summit brought together C-Level executives that are spearheading the introduction, adoption and usage of digital and financial services across Africa. Speakers came from multinationals, large enterprises, small and mid-sized enterprises, start-ups, informal businesses (such as market vendors and smallholder farmers) and sole proprietorships (public transport drivers/riders and e-commerce delivery agents), among others.
Below is the full list of winners of the 2021 Digital Impact Awards Africa.
Digital Banking Excellence
Standard Chartered Bank (Gold)
Stanbic Bank (Silver)
Banking Innovation Excellence
CenteOnTheGo | Centenary Bank
Community/MFI Banking Innovation Excellence
Centenary Bank (Gold)
Pride Microfinance (Silver)
FinTech Innovation Excellence
Digital Ticketing for Transport Services by KaCyber Technologies. (Gold)
SafeBoda Business Loans in partnership with Numida. (Silver)
Financial Services Digital Excellence
Stanbic Bank (Gold)
Standard Chartered Bank (Silver)
Consumer Goods Digital Excellence
Movit Products (Gold)
Café Javas (Silver)
Utilities and Government Services Digital Excellence
Wheels to the 2021 Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit that will also feature the 8th edition of Digital Impact Awards Africa have been set in motion with the opening of all channels for submissions of entries.
The Digital and Financial Inclusion summit will explore the strategic trends and technologies that are shaping the future of Digital, Information Technology and Business with special attention to the safety of customers’ funds and security of platforms in the financial technology industry. The summit will discuss at length the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on the general business ecosystem and what players must do to recover.
This year’s summit will bring together C-Level executives that are spearheading the introduction, adoption and usage of digital and financial services across Africa. Speakers will come from multinationals, large enterprises, small and mid-sized enterprises, start-ups, informal businesses (such as market vendors and smallholder farmers) and sole proprietorships (public transport drivers/riders and e-commerce delivery agents), among others.
As such, all people interested in being part of the 2021 Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit speakers and presenters in all the aforementioned categories should email their expression of interest to socialweb@HiPipo.com before November 20th. Such a submission should include a brief about the potential panelist and why they must be shortlisted.
#DIAA2021 Nominations underway.
This call for entries thus marks the start of a comprehensive Digital Impact Awards Africa entry submission and validation process that will run until November 13th, 2021. This will then be followed by the release of a list of nominees, Jury assessment and a rollout of public voting from November 17th to December 9th.
Under the theme #IncludeEveryone, Digital Impact Awards Africa is a platform that promotes Digital Inclusion, Financial Inclusion and Cyber security. Precisely, the Awards seek to recognize, celebrate and appreciate different individuals and organizations that are spearheading the use of digital mediums to better serve their communities.
Altogether, there are 10 Africa-focused and 17 Uganda-dedicated categories as shown in the #DIAA2021 entries’ submission form.
This year’s Digital and Financial Inclusion summit will run from 9th to 10th December at Hive Colab and Mestil Hotel respectively, with the Awards gala set to be the climax of this two-day interactive, informative and intriguing activity.
The summit and awards will use 3 official tags
#IncludeEveryone #DIAA2021 #LevelOneProject
Categories
Mavmica Acebooktwittermore
Africa
Africa Best FinTech Innovation
Africa Best Smart Device Initiative
Africa Best Internet Access Initiative
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Health
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Agriculture
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Education
Africa Best Mobile Innovation for Banking
Africa WomenInFinTech – Leadership Award (Personality)
Africa Financial Inclusion – Medal of Honor (Personality)
Africa Best Digital Response to Covid Impact.
Uganda
Financial Inclusion Excellence
Women Financial Inclusion Outstanding Contribution
Digital Banking Excellence (Online/Web, Mobile, Social Banking)
E-Commerce Excellence
Agriculture Digitization Excellence
Green Energy Excellence Powered by Financial Inclusion.
Best Digital Customer Experience
Best Brand on Social Media (Financial Services, Telecom, IT)
Best Brand on Social Media (Consumer Goods)
Best Brand on Social Media (Utilities, Government Services)
Best Digital Powered Campaign
Best Mobile Payments (Innovation)
Best Cards Payments (Innovation)
Best Community Banking
Best Digital Awareness Initiative (Financial Literacy, Cybersecurity)
The week-long Women in Fintech Hackathon came to an end last Friday with Kuzimba Services, providers of online construction and engineering solutions being declared winners after shrugging off tough competition for the top prize.
Organised by HiPipo in partnership with Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox, Mojaloop and Level One Project, the hackathon that culminated into the Women in Fintech summit, also saw all the teams that made it into the top six rewarded with cash prizes in addition to further three months training –incubation program.
Kuzimba services, whose team leader is Eng. Ephrance Eunice Namugenyi, won the top cash prize of Shs4million in addition to further three month training in different aspects, including business side of technology, product management and marketing. Hack Girls – developers of an interoperable payment platform for NGOs were second while PesaJet – with their digital agriculture platform named Farmore came third.
“What was just an idea has turned out to be real and usable. The hackathon has been hectic but we were up to the task. We knew we had a good product that addresses real community needs but winning the overall product has been a huge surprise,” Eng. Namugenyi told Daily Monitor in an interview after her team scoping the overall prize.
She added: “With Kuzimba web/mobile app, you can quickly get help on estate/site/home building/construction. We provide online and fast engineering solutions, making purchase of building materials and transportation easy as well as providing access to building experts, carpenters, transportation means, architects, interior designers, cleaners and engineers.”
The Women in Fintech hackathon had 16 teams that were women led and women dominated with each team having between two to four members, majority of whom under the age of 30 years. The hackathon introduced the participants to new and emerging tools and technologies that are available to help them create inclusive and instant payment solutions that can ably serve people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Trials and Tribulations.
Although HiPipo and partners, including Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox, Mojaloop and Level One Project, are looking at empowering more women in the technology space, particular in areas of developing innovative and interoperable technologic solutions, there are still numerous barriers hindering women participation in Fintech and technology as a whole.
Discussing challenges and way forward at the Women in Fintech Summit, Founder and Author of Ideation Corner, Ms Damali Ssali noted that cost of both internet and digital transaction remains way beyond what many women, including those in Micro, Small and Medium enterprises can afford. And this explains why only just about 10 per cent of money is being exchanged digitally in Uganda.
As for Ms Doreen Lukandwa, the Vice President Global Enterprises at MFS Africa/Beyonic, women need to be allowed to be revolutionaries as it is through this freedom to invert and innovate that they can eventually develop products that empower them to be better across the economic sectors.
Offer support.
Nonetheless, Innocent Kawooya, the HiPipo CEO noted that even amidst several challenges, stakeholders both government and private must continue to empower and encourage more women participation in technology at all stages as this is one of the surest ways of closing the gender diversity gap in the technology space.
“Our intention and that of our partners is to ensure that the technological gender gap is closed. Platforms like the Women in FinTech hackathon and summit are just one example of what we are doing to empower women,” Innocent Kawooya said.
He continued: “We want to see more women in the digital innovation space, support them to not just understand but also innovate digitally. We will also continue working towards inclusive digital solutions as well as creating technologies that support and help populations at the bottom of the pyramid get financially included.”
Additionally, Hon David Karubanga, the HiPipo Patron and MP for Kigorobya County noted that the government of Uganda is committed to enhancing financial inclusion and women empowerment.
He promised to work with HiPipo to present all the sixteen teams’ ideas to the Ministry of ICT and deliberate on how they can be further helped.
Top Six Teams.
1. Kuzimba Online Services – Online Supermarket for Construction and Engineering.
2. Hack Girls – An interoperable finance management solution to enable NGOs and other organisations disburse bulk transactions to final beneficiaries.
3. PesaJet (Farmore) – A digital platform for smallholder farmers offering garden inputs, markets, savings and loans.
4. Green Shares – Digital Payments for fmallholder Farmers
5. Mpa Mpe – A fundraising platform for young entrepreneurs and their businesses.
6. Farmers Financial Development Avenue (FFDA) – A solution that connects farmers to banks, helping them have easy access to credit services.
Kampala, Wednesday October 13, 2021: Participants at the on-going Women in FinTech Hackathon have been challenged to make good use of the Internet as it has several resources needed for product success.
This message was delivered by Damali Ssali, a seasoned Chartered Accountant, Book Author and the Founder of the Ideation Corner on Day 5 of the Women in FinTech Hackathon.
Damali Ssali noted that even though Product Development and Roll-out is a hectic process, putting the Internet to proper use can help fix several issues.
“The internet as a tool contains a lot of resources from product development, research and fundraising among others. The internet will also help you make sure that the product you are developing is not a duplicate of what is already on the market. The internet will help you improve your product. Put it to proper use,” Damali Ssali noted.
Ms Ssali further asked the participants to join FinTech minded and Tech based groups as these too have a lot of technical resources that are crucial for product success.
She later engaged participants in a question and answer session where teams were allowed to ask questions about Technology, Finance, Marketing, and Fundraising.
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.
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 40Days 40 FinTechs initiative.
Day four of the ongoing Women in FinTech Hackathon was a huge success as participants learnt about Product Management, Prototyping, and the Digital Financial Services Providers (DFSPs) ecosystem.
The day’s mentor, Primera Muthoni; an ICT Product Development Expert and a senior mentor with Girls for Girls, Uganda Program urged the participants to pay utmost attention to product research, and the know your customer (KYC) matrix as the two are key to product success.
Discussing product management, Muthoni noted that the only way to develop a sustainable product is by identifying a problem, knowing the audience it affects and then coming up with a solution.
She further advised the groups to identify their competitive advantage and include it in their product development stages such that it can be compelling to any potential investors.
“An investor wants to see where you are headed. Does your product have a promise? How do the market projections look like?” Muthoni noted.
She added that a good product should have both a product road-map and technology roadmap and this should be realized in no more than 12 weeks.
“By the time the product is ready, make sure you have double or triple-checked it. Leave no room for a foul start because it creates a bad perception about your product,” she said.
Primera Muthoni was the third mentor at the ongoing Women in FinTech Hackathon that has attracted 17 women-led teams of between two to four members each. The teams are coming up with financial inclusion solutions that address their community needs, aided by Level One Project principles and latest technologies.
The other mentors before her were 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 and Doreen Lukandwa; the Beyonic/MFS Africa vice president (global enterprises).
During the Day Four morning session led by Cleopatra Kanyunyuzi, the co-founder of Club Tangaza, the Hackathon participants were taken through Digital Financial Service Providers (DFSPs), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and Interoperability Models citing that these help to ease the work of the innovators, by providing customers with real time customer transactions, security, efficiency, accountability and convenience.
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.
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 40Days 40 FinTechs initiative.
Kampala, Monday October 11, 2021: 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 by 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.
Day Two of the #WomenInFinTech #LevelOneProject Hackathon was successfully concluded with discussions centred on how participants can improve their projects in order to serve their target audiences better.
Day two mentor, Doreen Lukandwa, the Beyonic/MFS Africa vice president (global enterprises) and winner of the 2020 Women in FinTech Award urged participants to use latest technologies such as Mojaloop Open Source Software in order to add value to their products as this will give them a better entry in to the financial technology ecosystem.
“Be intentional about your projects. Give your products value and be confident in what you are doing,” she said, noting that developers must also be price sensitive as this is one of the key factors that determine a good innovation.
“When you are selling your product, introduce yourself in a manner that the mass market will understand. This gives your innovation identity and simplifies the value of the product because not everyone you are trying to engage knows the technical terminologies,” 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.
