The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has announced the three winners of the Virtual Hackathon 2020 with the Kenyan SMEs missing out.
The three winners were the SME Credit Pro from Cameroon, Miza A2F Platform from the United Arab Emirates/Tunisia, and MobiCash from Libya.
“The top three winners were selected after a rigorous evaluation process that saw 15 shortlisted finalists pitch their solutions to an experienced panel of judges on the Demo Day on August 31, 2020,” said CBK in a statement.The theme of the Hackathon was “Harnessing Fintech in addressing COVID19 effects on healthcare, digital payments, and economic recovery,” according to CBK.
The overall winner of the Hackathon, SME Credit Pro from Cameroon will participate in the Global Fintech Hackcelerator at the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) scheduled for December 2020.
The SFF, the world’s largest fintech event, is convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The 15 finalists will benefit from training, mentorship, and collaboration opportunities from some of the Hackathon’s partners. The Hackathon witnessed an impressive array of innovative solutions in Healthcare, Digital Payments, Economic Recovery, and General categories. The solutions presented targeted the health and economic dimensions of the pandemic.
This included financing of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), cash transfers to vulnerable groups, enhancing agriculture value chains and COVID-19 contact-tracing. These solutions when scaled up will play an important role, not only in the context of the pandemic but also in contributing to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The pandemic has been a setback in the implementation of the SDGs, particularly in health and education. Innovation will be critical as we recoup the lost ground in achieving the SDGs.
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