LUSAKA, Zambia — Malawian FinTech startup TradeFlow Analytics has emerged as the winner of the inaugural Zambia/Malawi Women in FinTech Hackathon, taking home a cash prize of $2,000.
The hackathon, organized by HiPipo in collaboration with the COMESA Business Council, aimed to promote financial inclusion and empower women in the FinTech sector. Sixteen teams from Zambia and Malawi participated in the week-long event.
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TradeFlow Analytics, a web solution that provides trade information to cross-border traders, was declared the winner after impressing judges with its innovative solution. Mighty Fin from Zambia came second, winning $1,000 for its savings and loan application, Mama Pay, targeting informal women traders and small-scale businesses.
Dr. Jonathan Pinifolo, Chief Operating Officer of the COMESA Business Council, praised all participating teams for their innovative solutions. “All teams were very good and they exhibited an understanding of what we were looking for. For instance, they were all able to incorporate and integrate the Mojaloop Open source software and Level One Project Principles in their solutions,” he said.
“All teams should be proud of themselves because they all exhibited potential to develop solutions that transform lives,” Pinifolo added.
Deborah Jalakasi, co-founder of TradeFlow Analytics, expressed her excitement at the win, saying, “We believe that with the right information, informal traders can grow their businesses. We want to make all informal cross-border traders financially included.”
“We are very excited, we didn’t expect this. We tried our best. We had two sleepless nights. We believe God has done it for us. We are still a startup. We want to do the technical implementation and make our product live,” Jalakasi added.
As a woman innovator, Jalakasi thanked the organizers of the hackathon for the insightful session targeting women-led organizations and promised that they “are also going to go out there and inspire other women…improve other women.”
Vwanganji Bowa, the team leader of Mighty Fin, noted that the hackathon has ‘tested our resilience’ and they are now focused on building a robust platform that can serve across the COMESA region.
Both teams appreciated the COMESA Business Council, HiPipo, and the Gates Foundation for championing the event, which included training in various aspects such as ideation, conceptualization, and development of Minimum Viable Products.
“We are not going back the way we came,” Jalakasi said.
Charlotte Neeza, FinTech Events Manager at HiPipo, encouraged all participating teams to continue with their ideas. “We have had six teams from Malawi and ten teams from Zambia. While only two teams have been selected to take the prize money, all other teams are winners. We will continue supporting them and believe that they have the capacity to become successful solutions serving people at the bottom of the pyramid,” she said.
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