Standard Bank has reiterated its commitment to promoting innovation and creativity as some of the key factors to solving challenges facing various sectors of the economy including banking.
Standard Bank Head of Commercial Banking Pempho Chalamanda was speaking during the bank’s Hackathon pitching event at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) in Thyolo District.
A Hackathon is an event where computer programmers gather to develop new approaches to solving problems.
Speaking at the end of the hackathon, Chalamanda said the bank decided to sponsor the event in order to tap knowledge of the innovators for use at the bank.
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“Partnering with MUST was one way of coming up with creative, innovative and technology-based ideas that can help us solve various problems at the bank, we are satisfied with the ideas that have been realized and we are looking forward to polishing them up further,” Chalamanda said.
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Must Vice Chancellor Address Malata said hackathons are used world over by corporations to come up with innovative solutions to various challenges.
Malata said apart from that, such events assist students in universities to think outside the usual academic learning.
“Apart from teaching, universities are also there to provide solutions to challenges in society, so this hackathon provides opportunities for our students to find innovative and practical solutions to challenges in various sectors,” Malata said.
About 16 girls from the university participated in the hackathon.
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They were tasked with bringing solutions through creativity and innovation to challenges such as automated policy tracker, automated asset transfer form and branch attendance register among others.
Standard bank financed the initiative to the tune of K10 million.
