Ghana's leading digital micro-savings platform, Naa Sika has been selected among 40 winners for the 2021 World Summit Awards (WSA21) designed to reward tech startups whose solutions address the UN Strategic Development Goals (SDGs).
Naa Sika was the only Ghanaian startup selected as one of the winners, out of over 8,000 entries for 2021, in a rigorous process, including a presentation to the WSA21 Grand Jury in a virtual forum.
Naa Sika drives financial inclusion for market women
A letter of nomination from the Chairperson of WSA to Naa Sika stated in part that the jurors evaluated all shortlisted projects in an open, transparent, and fair process, resulting in a most impressive list of 40 WSA winners for 2021 being selected.
It noted that each of the 2021 winners demonstrated how content driven digital solutions decisively support societal challenges and assist to achieve the UN SDGs.
I am delighted to let you know that you were successful in your presentation and that your solution was selected as one of the 40 WSA winners 2021!," the letter said to Naa Sika.
There are nine categories of awards, with five winners each. Naa Sika is a winner under the Inclusion and Empowerment category, together with four others.
Other categories under the award scheme are the Government and Citizen Engagement, Health and Wellbeing, Learning and Education, Environment and Green Energy, Culture and Tourism, Smart Settle and Urbanization, Business and Commerce as well as WSA Young Innovator.
The WSA noted that the global pandemic has revealed the the importance of digital solutions and this year´s winners are an excellent example how digital solutions and
applications can help protect the environment, support healthcare, provide inclusive and high-quality education, connect people, and share relevant information.
The winning projects demonstrate the diversity and richness of digital content solutions globally," it said.
The awards, were announced today, Monday, February 7, 2022, and each of the winners will be given the rare opportunity to showcase their winning solutions to a global audience, including investors at this year's WSA Global Congress, slated for March 22 - 24, 2022, which a completely virtual forum under the theme HACK THE GAP.
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But this is not the first time Naa Sika is making Ghana proud on the international scene.
In year 2020 alone, Naa Sika won three awards - Best Social Protection Solution - World Bank; Innovation Award - Fontomfrom Amandze Awards and Digital Innovation Accelerator - GIZ.
Then in 2021 they the Startup Superstar Of The Year - Western Business Awards, before this new one this year.
Naa Sika take financial inclusion to mechanics
Team Lead at Naa Sika, Ralph Menz told Techgh24 that "Naa Sika is genuinely a cross-platform for all things money as we give the customers the freedom of choice of the channel to manage their Naa Sika account, namely WhatsApp, Telegram, USSD, iOS & Android apps."
According to him, currently, the platform is mainly driving the culture of savings to the only feature now is the Savings product, which come in three categories - Aku Sika (traditional susu), Barima Sika (timebound savings towards a specific project), and Aya Sika, which is a fixed deposit product locked for at least 90 days.
He said Payments, Insurance, Pensions, Loans and Investments products will be added to the platform soon.
Ralph Menz said for the past 2 years, the company has been prototyping the solution only in the Western Region, by piloted with savings with a bot on Telegram, but now "we have Telegram, WhatsApp and USSD. We have also made savings plans easy to understand and more comfortable for users. iOS and Android will be ready in 60 days."
He said the awards give the team more encouragement to continue to innovate to make their dream of creating a solution to impact Africa a reality.
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