Last Sunday, 23rd January 2022, we concluded the MTN MoMo Hackathon which we were conducting in partnership with MTN Zambia and Channel VAS.

The aim of the hackathon was to provide entrepreneurs and developers with the opportunity to build innovative financial and transactional applications using the MTN MoMo API platform.

The application period was from 26th November to 10th December 2021.  We closed off applications with a total of 70 applicants. A selection panel consisting of representatives from BongoHive and MTN Zambia selected the top 14 participants to begin their two-week hackathon journey. 

In the first week, the 14 participants teams attended a five-day Sprint Week to refine their transactional app ideas. 

The second and final week helped the teams to bring their solutions to life and prepare for Pitch Day. The teams also received group coaching with experts from BongoHive and MTN Zambia. This was followed by a two-day virtual pitch practice, and a one-day in-person practice session, which culminated into Pitch Day which was held on Sunday.

On Pitch Day, 10 companies presented their solution at the MTN MoMo Hackathon held at the Hive Coworking space. Each startup presented its solution to a panel of judges who were Lottie Masi and Pafyako Malema of MTN Zambia, Dinko Svetic of Channel VAS, and Chilufya of PremierCredit Zambia

The participants of the programme had an array of solutions using the MTN MoMo API. Solutions ranged from the agricultural sector, e-commerce, education, finance, gaming, transport and philanthropy.

The 3 winners of the programme were presented with their cheques at a small Award Ceremony held at MTN Zambia Head Office on Wednesday 26th January.

The 3 emergent winners were:

3rd Prize: Chroma Pixel Games

Chroma Pixel Games is a game development and publishing company. It aims to positively impact the game industry with a vision to promote African content and learning through gaming and electronic sports. They walked away with a prize of  ZMW10,000.

2nd Prize: 1 Kwacha Foundation

1Kwacha Foundation is a philanthropic-based crowdfunding platform that allows users to donate any amount of money from as low as k1 towards specific causes stemming from charities, orphanage support, the girl child, quality education of orphans, and the needy of society. They were awarded the prize of ZMW15,000.

First Prize: Maliketi eXchange

Maliketi eXchange is an online marketplace that focuses on small businesses, providing an end-to-end solution, linking consumers, merchants and couriers. We facilitate settlement directly to the business, exposure to the wider online audience, and provide useful metrics and analytics to help businesses grow. They won the grand prize of ZMW20,000.

Peter Nawa, Entrepreneurship Lead at BongoHive had this to say about the hackathon: “There are a lot of brilliant ideas out there and the MTN MoMo Hackathon is one of the avenues that are used to support individuals towards the actualisation of their ideas. The participants showcased their dedication and efforts during the two weeks. Look out for them in the next few years.”

MTN Zambia FinTech Managing Director, Komba Malukutila emphasized the critical role that SMEs play in fostering financial inclusion. 

“The MTN MoMo Hackathon is one of the ways we are collaborating with SMEs in driving digital innovations. This is a testament to our commitment to accelerate the adoption of digital financial services in Zambia.”

Congratulations to the 3 winning startups as well as to the other teams that participated in the hackathon. We are happy to be a partner on initiatives such as these that help to build the next generation of startups and entrepreneurs in the digital world.