Team Binary wins Zambia #DataHack4Fi competition 2017

25/04/201726/04/2017 Sandi

Last night BongoHive in partnership with Insight2Impact, Zoona, Insurer’s Association of Zambia (IAZ) and Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ) held the final pitch night of the Data Hack for Financial Inclusion (DataHack4Fi) competition in which 6 participants presented their products.

DataHackFi was created ‘to create solutions that advance financial inclusion in Zambia with the use of data. Applicants of the competition where invited to take part in a 2.5 day hackathon called the DataHack4Fi at BongoHive. The hackathon attracted about 25 participants, awesome and eager to create solutions to solve problems in financial inclusion and insurance in Zambia. The competition brought together data specialists (analysts and software developers) and Financial Service Providers (FSPs) to use data to create innovations that address low financial inclusion in Zambia. Seven (7) teams emerged during the hackathon and made it to the semi’s of the competition where they underwent a 4-week mentorship programme,’ according to Bongohive’s event page.

The judges were Collins Musamba of Zoona, Elias Chipimo of the FSDZ board, Austin Chijikwa of ZANACO and Kambole Chituwo of IAZ.

The 6 teams were:

Team Outsource Now with their product Z’POS: A payment gateway system for different payments such as insurance premiums, deposits for savings and withdrawals using Z’POS centres as agents. It will be tackling financial exclusion of SMEs by enabling them to download app and enter their stock inventory and sales and send reports via text or email to whomever needs that data. This is to make savings and insurance services convenient for those unable to reach the bank or insurance company. All Z’POS needs is business development support, partnerships with member associations, and capital.
Team BlockHeads with Agripredict using agricutlural tech to reduce misfortune for farmers by using local weather data to and localizing that data to give farmers more information about weather, enabling them to make decision about how to manage their crop/livestock and avoid misfortune to their stock. The product is an AI platform that collects weather data from met stations, pass it through their prediction system. BlockHeads gives to the solution of the problem that current insurance schemes for agriculture are costly for most farmers. Agripredict comes in SMS, USSD, and will soon have voice and local languages in the package. Agripredict will make money through software as a service, hardware (IoT and sensor technology) and insurance brokerage.
Team Initiative with a digital Chilimba: Chilimba works the same way as it does in local circles, only now migrated digitally. It will assist people join savings groups, sends alerts on withdrawals and deposits to all members. A team leader controlling the app can send a join or reject message to people. Once they accept invitation to join savings group, they are directed to team leaders location (school,hospital,supermarket) where they can deposit money and start saving.
Team Itech with a product called Polani Health Care to encourage financial inclusion through use of technology in insurance. The Polani health care device is a medicine dispenser, alarm and reminder. It will be able to take records of the patient’s or client’s medication intake. With the usage of this device, a significant amount of data will be generated which will further be refined and analysed to gain insights. Insurance companies will be able to use this data and generate strategic analysis for making better business decisions. The device will be able to store medicine and collect that medicinal data of user and is sent over portal to insurance company. Polani also has a wearable device and can be used by any person anywhere to monitor health routines of insurance client by insurance company.
Team Nemo with N2F which is trying to solve problem of lack of financial services like loans or grants for SMEs. They have built a product called N2F that is a network of lenders/investors and startups. N2F aims to have collective number of people sharing financial risk at minimal cost. An account will have to be created at an N2F agent’S location, then registration is done through app, allowing the startup to then pitch to impress potential investors. N2F is available on Android. Interest rates are low at 10% compared to 42% by others, and no collateral is needed for business loans.
Team Binary with a product on financial inclusion for insurance through education with their target market size being the over 7000+ students at the University of Zambia. Students can have the option of paying insurance premiums using mobile money. Insurance companies are the customer, students are the users.

As the night ended the #DataHack4Fi winners were announced, in 3rd place was Team Nemo, in 2nd place Team BlockHeads, with Team Binary taking 1st place.