Absa Bank Botswana has announced the winners of its second hackathon and Incubation programme. This year the Absa Hackathon saw the participation of young Batswana innovators create sustainable digital businesses that will address the challenges facing the agricultural sector, AgriTech.

Participating teams presented their solutions to a panel of expert judges from the banking, business, agriculture, and technology sectors. Subsequently, the judges announced the top three teams who made it to the final. In first place was Team Binary Thoughts, who walked away with P60,000, followed by team Digital Lead with P40,000, and Team EO Analytics in third place with P20,000.

This year, the prize money for the Top 3 finalists was increased by an additional P10,000 for the first two teams and an increase of P5,000 for the third-placed team. The winning team will additionally receive a development and maintenance contract, to further support their winning idea. Moreover, each of the Top 3 finalists was provided with a laptop, Udemy online learning licence for one year, and equipment to enable reliable internet connectivity.

As part of capacity building, for the past three months, the top three teams participated in an incubation programme undergoing entrepreneurial skills development training. The programme was facilitated by experts from the Absa family in the area of technology and the entrepreneurship training was conducted by Nineteen 21.

The training aimed to provide critical support and guidance with industry experts on various aspects of entrepreneurship and technology dedicated to assisting young innovators to prepare for the world of entrepreneurship.

Absa Bank managing director, Keabetswe Pheko-Moshagane said as a bank they are deliberate in finding purposeful and innovative solutions such as the Hackathon and Incubation programme that will serve as significant contributors to the greater vision of sustainable digital transformation in Botswana.

“As a digitally-led bank, we are inspired to find creative ways to deliver innovative technologies and propositions to help Batswana find ways to get things done. We believe that this will help shape a world that values progress and economic activity to serve the common good,” she said.

Pheko-Moshagane said digitisation is inevitably changing business models and as Absa Bank Botswana, they are proud to have the opportunity to be an active player and partner in supporting the dreams and aspirations of the youth in the technology space.

Tumisang Kgarubane of Team Binary Thoughts acknowledged Absa for the opportunity noting that the programme has motivated them on their entrepreneurial journey.

“I am very grateful to Absa Bank Botswana for this opportunity. I believe that we will use the lessons, experiences, and engagements from this programme to motivate us on our entrepreneurial journey.

We look forward to growing, innovating and being an active player in the growth and development of the Agri-sector. Winning the hackathon has made me rethink what I can achieve, ke le monana wa Motswana (as a Motswana youth),” Kgarubane said.