Why I'm Using Hackathon to Encourage Collaboration

I am an ardent believer in collaboration. I believe that with collaboration, many women can help to create an environment that encourages and promotes sustainability and teamwork. A hackathon event creates a collaborative environment for solving a certain problem and from 1st to 3rd December 2022, InspireIT Hackathon Event created an environment where participants can brainstorm to solve problems that women with disabilities face when it comes to financial inclusion. The overall idea of the event was to help further identify the needs of women with disabilities with a view to increasing their access to financial services.

The three day event was aimed at enhancing financial inclusion for women with disabilities while also helping them to learn basic digital literacy skills, as well as make the public more aware that a compassionate approach to the financial needs of women with disabilities, supported by innovative technology solutions, has the potential to address the needs of the most vulnerable members of society.

The event also included workshops on increasing access to quality financial services for women with disabilities, digital skills and its relevance to financial literacy, introduction to financial inclusion and the connection between financial inclusion and the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). The event kicked off at School for the Deaf at Ofekata-Orodo in Mbaitoli Local Government Area in Imo State and then moved to Imo Art Village at Mbari, Ikenegbu Owerri. We had about 69 attendees in general and participants were able to pitch their ideas as well as their challenges as it relates to financial inclusion.

The hackathon event is also one of InspireIT's planned strategies for its Empowering Women with Disabilities Through Multimedia Art Training (EWDMAT) project. At InspireIT, we strongly believe that financial literacy is vital to women's empowerment. A strong foundation in financial literacy can help support one's life goals and help one make sound financial decisions as well as run a business. Having a female facilitator from the bank (Access bank branch manager) also helped our participants who were not aware of many financial opportunities/offers such as loans and grants by the banks and Federal Government of Nigeria for vulnerable individuals . For example, the GEEP 2.0 loan scheme designed by the Federal Government of Nigeria to provide financial inclusion and give credit access to poor and vulnerable individuals, including Persons with Disability and persons at the bottom of the economic pyramid who are engaged in small scale commercial activities. 

Information is key and it was obvious during the hackathon event that there is need to address the information gap in access to finance challenge for women with disabilities. After the event, I created a Whatsapp group for the participants, so that the workshop facilitators can share information about some of these opportunities by banks, the Federal Government and Foundations offering grants.