The inaugural e-Cedi hackathon winners have been revealed by the Bank of Ghana.
The competition’s goals were to promote creativity and forge alliances around the central bank’s new e-Cedi digital currency.
Ten finalists were chosen from the original 88 candidates to present their e-Cedi ideas and vie for the cash. Agriculture, taxation, business transactions, government payments, and other topics were all covered throughout the hackathon.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) first-ever Cedi hackathon announced Forward Titans the victors, with a celebration held in Accra. The winner took home a GHC 500,000 cash award. For their efforts, Nokofio, the first runner-up, was awarded GHC 300,000, while Pay code, the second runner-up, was given GHC 200,000. Moolre, Team Auto Cedi, David Archer, AgroEcedi, Applicase, Libeara X SCB Ghana, and Team CreditLink are the other ten finalists.
Dr. Addison encourages e-Cedi innovators to keep improving their solutions
The governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, emphasised the significance of the competition by saying that the advantages of the e-Cedi Hackathon outweigh the prizes. Subject to additional improvement, your solutions can be mainstreamed.
No matter what, he urged the competitors to keep coming up with new ideas.
Ghana’s digital economy is to be supported by the e-Cedi, which also seeks to advance financial inclusion, payment security, and efficiency. Making e-Cedi appealing to a variety of user groups is thought to be more realistic and better accomplished by co-creating use cases with innovators, developers, user experience specialists, and financial service providers, according to Dr. Addison.
He continued by saying that the hackathon symbolises the continuous spirit of cooperation surrounding the e-Cedi. “Despite the advancements, there is still more work to be done to meaningfully address each citizen’s financial service demands.
This means that in order to explore creative, innovative solutions, and teamwork, an imaginative mentality is required. One intriguing option is the use of digital currency issued by a central bank.
Additionally, the Bank of Ghana has made significant investments in financial monitoring technologies. “Central banks from South Africa, Egypt, Barbados, Zambia, and the Solomon Islands have come to learn from us,” Dr. Addison emphasised.
Technology and e-Cedi can boost development
In conclusion, he emphasised how critical it is to adjust to new technologies like artificial intelligence, saying that “even with their rapid advancement, technology is a force for good and a major factor in determining our course for development.” Thus, our capacity to recognise, embrace, and modify technology will enable the financial services sector to spearhead national development initiatives.
A significant achievement in Ghana’s digital currency endeavours is the e-Cedi hackathon. Policymakers anticipate that competition will spur further innovation in e-Cedi, thereby facilitating financial access and promoting digital transformation throughout the nation.
