The I4GHackfest2021 FinData hackathon roundup
In the latter part of 2021, we partnered with the Ingressive for Good community to host the 2021 annual Hackfest event and the three-day hackathon themed FinData: Digital transformation in the area of financial data and innovative payment systems.
At Mono, we’re intentional about the development of individuals, businesses, and systems around us, and this is why a partnership with the Ingressive For Good community — which exists to empower young Africans with skills to contribute to the development in Africa — aligned with our vision.
While this partnership with Ingressive for Good was a great opportunity for us to support and impact the African tech ecosystem, it also helped us to gain out-of-field insights and feedback on Mono’s APIs from a young developer audience.
The challenge and the solution
The main goal of this year's hackathon was to get diverse and talented people in tech to collaborate to build simple financial solutions in MVP capacity, with Mono’s APIs at the core of each solution. To measure the impact of each product, participants were also required to show innovation, originality, and sustainability across their products. They were given a problem statement which they had to build a solution for:
The challenge:
African developers and businesses in the financial technology space face product and operational difficulty without access to historical customer financial data on identity and transactions. This results in decisions that are not rooted in data, waste of time, and even possibly, revenue loss.
A solution:
To build financial technology products, using infrastructure that eliminates this problem. The participants’ built their solutions with the Mono Connect product at the core, solving for user authorization and secure and reliable access to users’ bank accounts for financial data.
The Mono Connect API and its documentation were made available to the participants, to securely retrieve users’ financial data with their permission, and build innovative solutions.
What the Hackathon participants built with Mono’s APIs
As the hackathon progressed, the participants formed teams with diverse skills from front-end development to UI design, to help them build out their prototypes before Demo Day.
On Demo Day, the various teams presented the distinctive solutions they built to the panel of judges. Some of the solutions they built include:
A Personal Finance Management App for tracking and managing subscriptions and recurring bills.
A Credit Scoring Solution, which will allow users to obtain a personalised credit score (based on their income history and asset portfolio) that can be shared with various lending companies when they apply for a loan.
An Escrow App for buyers and sellers to safely and securely trade and transact online to enhance e-commerce experiences and reduce chargeback and fraud risks.
A Buy Now Pay Later Solution that allows customers to purchase items instantly and make payments for them over a flexible period of time.
Automated Saving Apps for customers to automatically save when they spend or earn money.
The Winners of the Hackathon
The judging process to select the most impressive product was a difficult call, as the solutions developed by the various teams were amazing, and even more so because they had prototypes built in under 72 hours.
After deliberations, Team bitBybit emerged as the overall winner for the Hackathon. Team bitBybit built a solution that enables consumers to purchase items and make payments later in instalments over a flexible period of time. The team wrote about their experience and product in more detail here.
The team members for bitBybit include:
Damilola Dolor (Twitter: @oxdod)
Damilola Egbetayo (Twitter: @hezhykeyhel)
Alexandra Ogubuike (Twitter: @girl-meets-tech)
Dikamsiyochi Udochi (Twitter: @dikamsiyoung)
Team Hebron FC came in close at second place. The team built Tranzakt, a Personal Finance Management app that lets users track and manage their subscriptions and recurring bills in one place. Users can view due dates for their subscription plans, free trials, or bill payments, and also get email reminders when they are due. You can find more details about how they built Tranzakt here.
The team members for Hebron FC are:
Marvellous Ibironke
Dosunmu Ronald (Twitter: @IamRonald05)
Okonicha Chukwudinma
Faji Olaotan (Twitter: @Fajiolaotan)
Finally, in the third position was Team Captain. They built Explicit, a solution that enables you to view and track how public contributions and donations made by (private) individuals are spent. They shared more details on how they built this here.
The team members for team Captain include:
Victor Joseph (Twitter: @Joseph_Victor_T)
Francis Daniel (Twitter: @Lazan_Daniel)
The Ingressive For Good hackathon proved to be much more than a hackathon for us; it was a great learning experience. The participants had the opportunity to learn and build real-life products, and we experienced the many ways they were able to innovate with our APIs. We want to thank everyone who participated, as well as the Ingressive For Good team, the mentors, participants, and community partners, who made the hackathon an amazing experience. We look forward to being more involved in projects that empower more African developers and young people in tech, and driving meaningful impact for the tech ecosystem.
