Wala nets Zambezi Prize
The Legatum Center for
Development and Entrepreneurship (http://Legatum.mit.edu/) at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), with support from the Mastercard Foundation
(https://MastercardFdn.org/), has named South Africa startup, Wala
(https://getWala.com/), as the grand prize winner of the 2018 Zambezi Prize
(http://Zambezi.mit.edu/) for Innovation in Financial Inclusion.
The announcement came during the
Open Mic Africa Summit (https://Zambezi.mit.edu/openmicafrica/) in Nairobi on
August 29, 2018.
Wala is a mobile financial
platform geared toward consumers operating outside the formal financial system.
Using a blockchain system, it enables zero-fee, instant, borderless
micro-payments for emerging market consumers.
Through the Wala platform, users
receive a cryptocurrency wallet and can access transactional banking,
remittances, loans, and insurance.
Wala was chosen from among 10
finalists (http://bit.ly/2LFj1nk) for the Zambezi Prize. All of them joined
leaders from the MIT and African tech ecosystems for the 2018 MIT Open Mic
Africa Summit (https://Zambezi.mit.edu/openmicafrica/) at Strathmore University
in Nairobi.
The Summit, featuring
cohort-building, panel discussions, and MIT hackathon exercises, culminated in
the announcement of Wala as the US$100,000 grand prize winner. Tulaa
(https://www.Tulaa.io/) (Kenya) and RecyclePoints
(http://www.RecyclePoints.com/) (Nigeria) each won US$30,000 as runners-up.
The seven remaining finalists won
US$5,000 each. They are Apollo Agriculture (https://ApolloAgriculture.com/)
(Kenya), Bidhaa Sasa (http://www.Bidhaa.co.ke/) (Kenya), FarmDrive
(https://FarmDrive.co.ke/) (Kenya), Farmerline (https://Farmerline.co/)
(Ghana), LanteOTC (https://LanteOTC.com/) (South Africa), MaTontine
(http://MaTontine.com/en/) (Senegal), and OZÉ (https://www.OZE.guru/) (Ghana).
An additional US$5,000 will be
awarded to an African entrepreneur—to be named later this year—who has
demonstrated great leadership in unifying Africa’s tech ecosystem.
“Innovators like Wala and the
other Zambezi finalists are vital to driving a more inclusive prosperity,” said
Georgina Campbell Flatter, Executive Director, MIT Legatum Center. “We’re
excited to work with them.”
“We are immensely proud to
support the Zambezi Prize,” said Ann Miles, Director of Thought Leadership and
Innovation at the Mastercard Foundation. “It shines a bright light on the
creativity and talent of Africa’s young people, and the thinking they bring to
financial inclusion. This is making real differences in the lives of poor
people on the continent.”
All 10 Prize finalists will
attend the Zambezi boot camp on the MIT campus during the MIT Inclusive
Innovation Challenge (IIC) (https://www.MITInclusiveInnovation.com/) gala in
Boston on November 5-9. As the Zambezi Prize winner, Wala also won the IIC
Africa Prize in the Financial Inclusion category. The startup will join the
three other winners of the IIC Africa Prize, to represent Africa at the IIC
global tournament which awards over $1 million in prizes. The IIC event is part
of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (http://IDE.mit.edu/) and, along
with the MIT Legatum Center’s initiatives, exemplifies MIT’s global commitment
to the future of work (http://bit.ly/2PmrL46).
Past Zambezi finalists include
Kifiya (http://www.Kifiya.com/), PlusPeople (http://www.PlusPeople.co.ke/), MFS
Africa (http://MFSAfrica.com/), Tugende (https://www.goTugende.com/), Chamasoft
(https://Chamasoft.com/), Nomanini (https://www.Nomanini.com/), First Access
(https://www.FirstaAccess.co/), AgriLife, M-Changa (http://Changa.co.ke/), and
mJara (http://www.mJara.com/en/index.html). Several attended this year’s Open
Mic Africa Summit to engage with the new cohort.
The Zambezi Prize and the Open
Mic Africa tour are pillars of the Legatum Center’s Africa Strategy – a global
vision to leverage MIT’s ecosystem to improve lives through principled
entrepreneurial leadership. The Legatum Center’s Africa strategy is also a core
component of the MIT-Africa (https://Africa.MIT.edu/) initiative which
encompasses the Institute’s global priority (http://bit.ly/2wwOhPF) for
collaboration with the continent.
Ali Diallo, Global Programs
Manager at the MIT Legatum Center, emphasized the scale of collaboration
necessary to execute initiatives like Open Mic Africa and the Zambezi Prize.
“We’re especially grateful to the Zambezi Prize Board, our global ecosystem
collaborators, and the 40 African tech leaders who served as Zambezi judges and
whose dedication to entrepreneurship and financial inclusion helped us discover
this new generation of innovators.”
For more information on the
Zambezi Prize and on the 2018 Open Mic Africa Summit in Nairobi, visit
http://www.Zambezi.mit.edu/ or contact the MIT Legatum Center at info@zambezi.mit.edu
About the Legatum Center for
Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT
The Legatum Center
(www.Legatum.mit.edu) was founded on the belief that entrepreneurs and their
market-driven solutions are critical to tackling the world’s greatest
challenges and driving global prosperity. Based at MIT Sloan School of
Management, the Center leverages expertise and research across campus to equip
future leaders with the skills, values, and critical thinking they need to
succeed as entrepreneurial change agents. The Center’s capstone initiative is
the Legatum Fellowship Program which provides aspiring entrepreneurs with a
world-class education and substantial tuition support. The Legatum Center also conducts a set of
global activities to strengthen pathways between MIT and leaders of change in
frontier markets. To learn more, please visit legatum.mit.edu or follow on
Twitter @MITLegatum
About the Mastercard Foundation
The Mastercard Foundation
(www.MastercardFdn.org) seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to
learn and prosper. The Foundation’s work is guided by its mission to advance
learning and promote financial inclusion for people living in poverty. One of
the largest foundations in the world, it works almost exclusively in Africa. It
was created in 2006 by Mastercard International and operates independently
under the governance of its own Board of Directors. The Foundation is based in
Toronto, Canada. For more information and to sign up for the Foundation’s
newsletter, please visit www.mastercardfdn.org. Follow the Foundation at
@MastercardFdn on Twitter.
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