A women-only hackathon was held at the conclusion of Women’s Month by Mukuru, a leading next-generation financial services platform in Southern Africa, and WeThinkCode, an academy that offers a world-class coding curriculum to dynamic youth while addressing the industry skills shortage. The event was designed to give young women the chance to demonstrate their talent, advance their education, and advance their careers in the IT industry.
WeThinkCode female students and Mukuru Education Fund female bursary recipients participated in the hackathon. To better equip Mukuru’s customer base with financial management and education tools, teams were charged with creating a financial education or management solution. The event was a huge success, and the organizers were inspired by the brilliance, vigour, and energy on exhibit, which portended a bright future for women in technology in Africa.
According to Deidré Vrede, manager of Mukuru CSI, the event was planned to give winners the chance to advance their studies and win internships or job shadowing opportunities at Mukuru, but more significantly to generate excitement and give young, female students a platform to succeed.
“Since just 19% of the workforce in the fintech sector is female, we encourage students, particularly young women, to pursue professions in technology. The future of women in IT is promising, based on the creativity, ingenuity, and abilities on exhibit.
As she explains, “We thought it was an amazing opportunity to add gasoline to our passion for training young female coders and offer them a hand in building and conceiving something that will play a significant role in financial education across the continent.”
If given the chance, African women have the ability to be at the forefront of technology, according to Nyari Sumashonga, CEO of WeThinkCode. WeThinkCode is an academy that trains young people to become top-tier programmers who can succeed anywhere.
Collaboration with Mukuru
It seemed sensible to have this collaboration, a major African technology platform advancing cutting-edge fintech to better the lives of Africans since our alumni go on to develop solutions for business and society at large. This fits with what we want to achieve. I have no doubt that the young women will develop into role models for upcoming generations of female developers since they were excellent,” she says.
“Congratulations to all the young women who took part in the hackathon, not only the winning teams. You brought up the fact that women in technology have a promising future. Continue shining!
Deidre Vrede
Winners
These were the winners and runners-up:
Galaletsang Letlape, Katlego Rathelele, and Nkhensani Mutileni placed first.
2/ In second place were Gugulethu Mngomezulu, Selaelo Lemekoana, Lindiwe Tshabalala, Atlegang Tabane, and Lethabo Mokgokoloshi.
3/ Princess Sitole, Pretty Mangwadi, Nomfundo Hope Ngubane, Hleketani Mavanyisi, Paidamoyo Mapfuwa, and Lerato Ngcama came in third place.