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Visa has announced that it will be opening up the first Visa Everywhere Initiative for Sub Saharan Africa to young developers at this year’s Nairobi Tech Week (NTW) taking place from April 19- 21. Developers who win the Visa-led hackathon during the tech week will automatically gain entry into the Visa Everywhere Initiative where they will have an opportunity to compete for a chance to win up to US $50,000, at a regional event in the region.
The Visa Everywhere Initiative offers start-ups across 5 continents and 40 countries the opportunity to solve the commerce challenges of the future. Visa General Manager for East Africa, Sunny Walia, noted that opening up the global program to developers at Nairobi Tech Week is an opportunity to enable the growth and development of technology in Kenya.
“Visa is committed to supporting innovation and aspiring developers in the country. Introducing the Visa Everywhere Initiative at Nairobi Tech Week will therefore go a long way in enabling them merge their creative ideas with their technical skills to build something capable of solving potential challenges,” said Mr. Walia.
Nairobi Tech Week, which is in its third edition, is Kenya’s largest tech event for product makers. It is aimed at bringing various actors and influencers of the tech ecosystem to one space to showcase premier developments in innovation and technology.
This year’s agenda includes three days of workshops, panels and hackathons. Day one will focus on; hands-on workshops for developers and designers, to sharpen their skills, while day two and three, will primarily be for the Hackathon.
Visa will take part in panel discussions focused on three key areas; Fintech, Cyber Security and Tech in industries. Additionally, the hackathon competition will be based around three topics. Each of the topical challenges, are structured to leverage on Visa Developer APIs and are geared towards solving payments and commerce challenges of tomorrow.
Winners of the Visa-led hackathon will automatically enter the Visa Everywhere Initiative; where they will have an opportunity to compete for a chance to win up to US $50,000, get access to Visa’s products and services, expert mentorship and support from Visa and exposure to key Visa partners and clients.
The Sub Saharan edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative was launched last month and tasks start-ups to develop solutions to possible business challenges, while enhancing their own product proposals. This is in addition to offering visionary solutions for Visa’s vast system of partners.
According to Visa, payments systems need to grow as fast as the growing needs of e-commerce businesses, in order to achieve the required output.
“As the region’s domestic merchants rapidly expand their digital commerce proposition, payment gateways must also evolve at breakneck speed to offer their customers a hassle-free shopping experience,” said Mr. Walia.
