The MTN MoMo API Hackathon is an opportunity for companies, entrepreneurs and developers in Uganda to innovate and leverage mobile money to accelerate financial inclusion and digitize payments.
With growing innovation and diffusion of new technologies, people now appreciate the convenience of cashless interactions like e-payments, especially because people can now pay for goods and services anywhere and at anytime using services like MomoPay.
As MTN grows their service offering, they aim to create a marketplace that supports cashless and digital economies through affordable, inclusive, understandable and comprehensive financial services, especially after a key role they have played in the evolution of mobile financial services (MFS) to mobile financial (fintech) platforms by offering in-store payments, remittances, prepaid services, mobile wallets, micro-loans and micro-insurance in Uganda and across the continent.
During the recent info-session held at Outbox, the MTN MoMo team led by Mark Kivumbi and Allan Ddamulira answered some of the questions below as asked by the participants, mostly developers and entrepreneurs in attendance.
What is the upcoming MTN MoMo Hackathon about, and what should we expect?
The MTN MoMo Hackathon is an opportunity for companies, developers and entrepreneurs to find innovative financial and transactional apps for MTN MoMo using MTN Mobile Money APIs. The solutions presented will be an important step forward that will allow MTN MoMo to become a universal payment method in Uganda.
The goal of the hackathon is to increase financial inclusion through the use of digital technology as a critical component to fostering Africa’s economic development, especially for more isolated communities.
How do I apply for the upcoming MTN MoMo Hackathon?
The MTN MoMo Hackathon team is currently accepting idea submissions on their online platform.
You will need to follow these guidelines while making your idea submission:
- Idea Title: Written on the cover page
- Problem Statement: What is the specific problem?
- Approach: How will you solve it? Problem by technology (your solution)?
- Overview with a diagram: Share your solutions/prototype mock image & business model with a diagram
What will happen to the ideas that do not get chosen?
Beyond the hackathon, MTN MoMo Uganda will continue with community engagements through their developer community as long as the ideas submitted are aligned with what they would like to achieve as a company and as a country.
What’s in it for me as a developer? Why should I join the MTN MoMo Hackathon?
Aside from standing a chance of winning upto USD 10,000 in prizes, you will also interact with and learn from expert developers in Uganda and across Africa. You will also join the MTN developer community which will avail you with various opportunities to improve the economic and social well-being of millions of Africans.
What is the architecture of the MTN MoMo API, and how Can I integrate my apps with it?
MTN MoMo is an Open API, a JSON REST API, which is used by partners to access services in the Wallet platform and helps online merchants to manage payments.
Through the MTN Open API (Application Programming Interface), your business systems can be integrated directly with MTN Mobile Money enabling automated payments, collections and transfers. Innovative developers, programmers and your system integrators now have a user-friendly online platform from which they can easily become part of a digital community, that empowers them with the tools and expertise required to create new business opportunities and enhance existing products or system operations.
Read about the benefits and the how you can integrate you apps here: https://www.mtn.co.ug/service/open-api/
Mr. Steven Mutana, the Chief Regulatory and Administration Officer, at MTN MoMo Uganda encouraged developers and entrepreneurs to get involved with the people that they’d like to solve for as this will help them identify their pain-points.
He also emphasized that the Momo open API is a standardized technology that developers and entrepreneurs can leverage to build upon, and that collaboration is a success measure that developers can count on.
The range of solutions to bridge the financial services gap in the markets in which MTN operates requires partnerships with financial service providers, regulatory authorities, other mobile network operators, merchants, distributors, businesses, technology providers, entrepreneurs and developers. It is by working with partners like Outbox, an innovation and entrepreneurship support organization that has harnessed developer communities over a span of 10 years to create innovative apps to some of society’s biggest challenges.
MTN MoMo is a fintech platform offering consumers and businesses a host of innovative digital financial services. Among other things, it allows users to access payment, e-commerce, insurance, lending, and remittance services, available in 17 markets across Africa.
In its commitment to closing the financial inclusion gap, MTN Group has made its Mobile Money platform available across its entire footprint through the MoMo API program.
Interested in participating in the Hackathon? Register to Submit your idea here: https://momo2022.hackerearth.com/
