Solving real problems in finance | African fintech hackathon a big success
After recently attending Blockchain Africa it was clear that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are reinventing the way Africa engages with money and transactions. However, it only scratches the surface of problems to be identified and ideas that need to be explored. Fintech hackathons might just be the solution. We aim to create a space where developers, creatives and entrepreneurs can come together to conceptualize or build products to improve people’s lives.
Flash, the first pop up hackathon sponsor, is a South African technology company that offers solutions for informal retailers to sell digital products like airtime or electricity credits. Flash plays a pivotal role in serving underbanked communities in Africa, and their team was on hands at the hackathon to provide information and inspiration for solving problems in the informal market.
Tatenda and Constance arrived on the day with their infant son Tapani, not being either developers / designers they sourced inspiration from their collective experience in education and finance to pitch the winning idea: EaSSI, which provides parents a way to teach financial literacy to kids.
“…we decided to work on something which would draw on our areas of passion. With her learning design and educational technology specialisation and my economics and finance background we decided an app which would help parents equip their children on financial literacy would be the best route.”
The hackathon had over 50 participants in attendance, reaching maximum capacity for this event. Participants travelled from all over South Africa, with representation across age groups and skill levels, including students, developers, entrepreneurs and creatives.
A team of two individuals who met on the day, began designing a tool to provide environmentally conscious investing using smart contracts on Ethereum. Their project, Raise, focuses on impact investing, a investment strategy with focus on the triple bottom line; financial, social and environmental performance. Impact investors require not only an economic return, but a measurable social and environmental return that has been outlined by the United Nations as sustainable development goals.
The support of cryptocurrencies were embraced by teams, with both a payment and an investment solution being developed. Bequest is a crypto tipping app which allows users to receive tips in the form of crypto currencies. After just a day of development, the service already supports real tipping on both the Bitcoin and Stellar blockchains. For those that prefer to hold onto their digital money, Fanta is a portfolio management and investment splitting tool that easily diversifies your fiat investments into a selection of crypto assets via a user friendly interface.
Specific afrocentric initiatives evolved on the day, aimed at uplifting communities living in local informal settlements. Re:cash achieves this by using recyclable goods as a means of exchange, Recash.online allows users to monetize their recyclable waste. Trash is traded in for Re:cash vouchers which can be redeemed for everyday goods. Re:cash aims to simultaneously feed families and clean up their communities. Solving another solution for informal communities is Sharp Spear, an account settlement solution which aggregates account payments across companies and countries. This application solution saves users the financial and time cost of traveling significant distances, removing both a barrier to payments as well as the cash carry risks experienced in high theft areas.
Bluzen Dev is a social enterprise that is working on providing financial inclusion solutions to underbanked groups. Refugees and asylum seekers have difficulties accessing traditional banking and insurance companies due to a high risk status and lack of information
Age was not a barrier to participation, with two of the school aged participants, Chris and Justin, putting together a walkthrough video using the Rehive platform to demonstrate up a mock purchase at a coffee shop.
We look forward to picking up where we left off when we partner with Flash again on the 19th of May for our next Cape Town hackathon. Watch this space and register for your ticket here to avoid disappointment.
