To commemorate its 4th anniversary, Africa’s leading innovative fintech brand, Financial Services Innovators (FSI), is set to reward ten creative campus ambassadors with gift vouchers for their community development efforts across Nigeria.
The Executive Director of FSI, Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos during the week. According to the brand navigator of FSI, a non-profit organisation committed to enabling startups within the technology and financial space, the ambassadors will be rewarded for their community efforts on their campuses.
She added: “Also, we are holding the FSI innovation challenge within the student community across the six geopolitical zones, where winners will go home with lots of giveaway prizes.”
Reeling out the achievements of FSI in the last four years, Aituaz stated that the company has registered its impact and presence in five continents. “Our impact is being felt in five continents, and our community strength is over 8,200 members, including 45 foreign members from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and North America,” she declared.
Financial Services Innovators has gained recognition and acceptance as a brand in the highly competitive fintech ecosystem. One of such recognitions is the company’s partnership with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), FintechNGR and Mentorship Without Borders (WMB), a European firm providing free mentorship programmes in software development, data science and product management.
Aside empowering members on its platform with knowledge and technical support, FSI members have also graced international stages and won competitions. At the same time, three of their startups have equally been opportune to raise funds. “We have also provided technical support to over 2,500 individuals through our mentorship programmes, startup clinics and capacity building,” Aituaz reiterated.
Since its launch in October 2021, the FSI Talent Hunt initiative has been enormously successful. Over 1,000 campus ambassadors have emerged from the competitions. And only recently, the Financial Services Innovators unveiled three virtual innovation labs in tertiary institutions to groom tech talents. The company has nurtured 55 start-ups on its business incubation platform, and ten have already launched their products. Within a short time, FSI has proven that an innovation sandbox with a vibrant community is a cost-effective product innovation and development approach.
“We’ve indeed come a long way. Since commencing operations in 2020, over 140 MVPs have been developed in the FSI sandbox, 17 apps have been published in the Appstore, 8,000 people have accessed 375 API endpoints on the FSI sandbox, while over 487 teams have participated in the FSI hackathons,” the Executive Director said.
