Africa-Press – Eswatini. A three-month- long hackathon ended well for three contestants as they pocketed E180 000 from the MTN MoMo Hackathon.
A hackathon, also known as a codefest, is a social coding event that brings computer programmers and other interested people together to improve upon or build a new software programme.
The young computer programmers reached the final stage after going through mentoring and evaluation for the past three months. They received their prizes during an event held at the MTN Headquarters’ Auditorium, where they started off by making their final presentations before a panel of judges and officials from MTN’s FinTech Department. Leading the winners in first place was the duo of Thembinkosi Mkhonta and Qhawe Matimela, who designed a FundMoMo, a crowdfunding programme that intends to take people to the next step in finance. The two scooped a cash prize of E95 000 (US$5 000). E-market designer Sula Mabuza came second and walked away with E56 800 (US$3 000). Mabuza’s programme allows people to purchase food online.
Stokvels
On third place was Menzi Khumalo, who is the brains behind Decentralised Stokvel, a platform that enables users to save and access loans without going through the paperwork and queuing hassle that comes with manual stokvels. Mabuza was represented by Sabelo Mazibuko. He won himself a starter capital of E37 900 (US$2 000). Before handing over the prizes, the judges encouraged young entrepreneurs to work in collaboration to promote the ease of doing business. They also noted that all the innovations were critical in solving life challenges as they provided solutions that were not in place currently.
The judges who saw all the contestants throughout the journey were Simanga Dlamini, Ntokozo Bhembe, Celumusa Thusi and Similo Makama.
In closing, FinTech CEO Sam Shongwe appreciated the judges for their feedback and the contestants for pulling through to the final level.
“From the FinTech point of view, we can build from what the judges have said and improve. We will explore partnering with institutions in this business in order to make the next Hackathon a better one.” His message to the startups that participated in the finals was that they could change the economy of the country.
Stokvels
Shongwe, who is very passionate about seeing young people successfully set up problem-solving businesses, said MTN was going all out to ensure that the stokvels explored business opportunities in the tech and digital space. “There is a lot of potential in these young people’s minds, we just need to mentor them to tap into it,” he said. Shongwe also assigned his team to go back and find the other contestants who participated in the Hackathon but did not make it to the end. He said it was important to reach out to them and see how they could help them.
“These young people had brilliant ideas that still needed to be enhanced here and there. We need those people. We want to help them because by so doing, we are investing in the country’s economy,” he said. The CEO congratulated the winners, saying this was FinTech’s way of giving back to the young people of Eswatini.
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