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Empowering women in technology was on full display at the 2024 SheHacks annual hackathon held in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban on 22 and 23 August.

An important 2-day event during women’s month, the 2024 SheHacks edition recorded exceptional creativity on display and a keen focus on the importance of collaboration and supportive environments for women in technology, says Lorraine Nyawo, Head of Product Domain: Financial Services at Mukuru.

Mukuru, a next-generation digital financial services provider, and WeThinkCode_, a software development academy that also places most of its graduates at partner organisations, invest in the women-only hackathon to empower young female student developers to apply their skills in real-world scenarios, developing fintech solutions that address pressing challenges in financial services across Africa.

In addition, students have the opportunity for internships at Mukuru for a year and if they are successful, they can secure permanent placement within Mukuru which serves more than 16 million customers across Africa, Asia and Europe.

This year the brief was to develop a user interface (UI) front end for an API endpoint that would allow a customer to find a payout location when collecting a remittance easily.

The goal of the 2024 SheHacks was to create an intuitive and user-friendly application that allows a customer to interact with, search for a location and refine the search based on specified parameters, while also providing a seamless experience for Mukuru customers.

The outcome was a web or App-based UI front-end that interfaces with Mukuru’s pay-out APIs to return a location to its customer.

“We had a winning team in each region but the traits that stood out across all the winning teams in the different regions was the ability to meet the brief and not focus on additional scope items that may look good on paper but do not deliver on the problem,” says Nyawo.

“We were impressed with how the winning teams first assessed the problem statement as a group, away from their computers, to fully understand the task at hand and plan their approach before moving into the implementation phase. The winning team also used creative UI components to demonstrate the usability of their solution, which also catered for a broad customer base which is what we at Mukuru strive to do.”

Sethu Komani, Chief Commercial Officer at WeThinkCode_ says events such as the SheHacks hackathon break down barriers that have historically excluded women from tech roles and provide them with platforms to excel.

“Initiatives like these demonstrate the significant role women can play in technology and underscore the importance of creating opportunities that encourage their participation and growth in the industry. Through such collaborations, we are contributing to a more diverse, inclusive, and innovative tech ecosystem,” she says.

She says this collaboration has not only enhanced the technical abilities of their female students but also “provided them with invaluable opportunities for career growth, including internships and job shadowing”.

Nyawo says the SheHacks partnership between Mukuru and WeThinkCode_ continues to be a success because WeThinkCode_ develops young, problem-solving software developers and Mukuru provides the students with relevant problem from a real-life industry perspective. “This allows the students to get practical experiences in terms of the real-life problems they will be tackling when they enter the work environment,” she says.

Komani agrees, adding that the academy’s collaboration with Mukuru has been instrumental in advancing WeThinkCode_’s mission to shift Africa from tech consumption to tech creation. “By partnering with Mukuru, we have been able to offer our students practical experience in developing technology that impacts millions of people across Africa. This partnership particularly aligns with our goal to empower young women to lead in the tech industry, showcasing their capabilities as innovators and problem solvers in the fintech space.”

Nyawo says that the 2024 SheHacks edition is built on the excellence of previous editions and that the adjudication panel continues to be impressed by the innovative solutions the young women develop.

“SheHacks, and similar events, teach young women to work under pressure, collaborate in diverse teams, and present their ideas convincingly. I’ve witnessed many participants gain confidence in their abilities and discover new passions. Looking ahead, Mukuru is eager to enhance these events to offer even more value to the students,” she says.

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