By Martin Ekpeke
Professional service company, KPMG has partnered the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to sponsor this year’s Global FinTech Hackcelerator Programme, which is part of the annual Singapore FinTech Festival.
The 5-day programme is scheduled to take place between 13th to 17thNovember, 2017, and is expected to bring over 30,000 people from the global financial community together for a week-long expose of FinTech.
Speaking about the programme at a news conference in Lagos, Boye Ademola, Partner and Head, Financial Services Technology at KPMG in Nigeria noted that the Global FinTech Hackcelerator 2017, powered by KPMG Digital Village is focused on identifying and supporting innovative start-ups in building solutions that can address problems faced by the financial services industry
“The Global FinTech Hackcelerator is looking for the most exciting and innovative start-ups from all over the world who can address challenges spanning customer engagement, lending, insurance, asset management, financial inclusion and regtech,” he said.
He stated that the program is aimed to get1,000 applications from FinTech start-ups across the globe. The top 20 teams will be selected for a 12-week accelerator program in Singapore. Each team will receive a stipend of S$20,000 and they will be matched with industry champions to customize their prototypes into market-ready solutions for adoption. The top 3 teams will receive an additional cash prize of S$50,000 each.
FinTechs across Nigeria have been asked to apply for the ‘Hackcelerator’ program, and demonstrate how they can innovate to address the highlighted problem statements.
In his words: “We have come to realize that there are several FinTechs with brilliant solutions in Nigeria. We have people that create FinTech solutions that solve deep industry issues with global applicability. We are therefore inviting Nigerian FinTechs to take advantage of the Global FinTech Hackcelerator to showcase their solutions and bring Nigeria to the forefront as a leading FinTech hub. Interested individuals or teams are required to submit their applications before the deadline of 15 July, 2017.”