Modupe Gbadeyanka
Interswitch Group, the leading Pan-African payment solution company, commenced the airing of the InterswitchSPAK 2.0 TV show on Saturday, November 2, 2019.
The InterswitchSPAK TV show is another aspect of the Interswitch Switch-a-Future project, a CSR initiative of the company focused on driving increased interest in the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects among Senior Secondary School students across Africa.
The first episode of the TV show featured a critical segment of the CSR initiative – The InterswitchSPAK 2.0 Masterclass. This was an engagement session, where the 81 finalists from the qualifying examination interacted with some successful men and women in the society, as they shared knowledge and experiences from school, work and family life to inspire the students.
Mitchell Elegbe, GMD/Founder, Interswitch Group, spoke about the need to be trustworthy. He said to become successful in life, it was necessary to be trustworthy.
Alongside Mitchell Elegbe, other speakers who engaged the students were Dr. Ola Orekunrin-Brown, MD/Founder, Flying Doctors Nigeria and Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade, and Investment, who was represented by Ayokunnu Ojeniyi, Project Manager, Enabling Business Environment Secretariat, office of the Vice-President.
Another highlight of Episode One was the grouping of the students into their respective teams. The students were grouped into nine teams and each team was expected to analyse a problem in a selected sector of the economy, and present the best possible solution to the problem, leveraging technology.
The selected sectors under review included: agriculture, electoral processes and financial services. Each team is made up of nine members, with two team captains who are volunteers from Interswitch. They were to guide and mentor the students as they tried to proffers solutions to the given challenge.
The second episode of the TV show introduced the Innovation Challenge. Innovation Challenge, you wonder? Well, the Innovation Challenge is to inspire and motivate students to think outside-the-box while solving problems and pushing the limits of innovation to address Africa’s many challenges.
So far, Team Mercury has presented their brilliant technological solution after identifying a problem in Agriculture. The team gave a good account of themselves leveraging technology to unite key players in the Nigerian Agricultural system for easy access to goods, information, funds etc.
The winning team from the Innovation Challenge gets the Founder’s Award. Each member gets a laptop and the opportunity to work on the solution at the Interswitch Lab as an intern at Interswitch Headquarters for two weeks.
You will recall that the InterswitchSPAK 1.0 Innovation Challenge was won by Team Neptune who proposed a technological solution in the Nigerian healthcare sector; specifically proposing easier access to National Health Insurance.
Incidentally, Interswitch recently acquired majority stake in e-Clat Healthcare Ltd. As a result of this acquisition, the combined healthcare and payment technology solutions are expected to position the Interswitch Group as both a health-tech solution and payments provider of choice to the healthcare industry going forward.
Another interesting part of Episode Two, is the swift shift from a spirit of camaraderie to that of competition among the team members. After the collaboration to present the solution for the Innovation Challenge, the student will move into another phase of the show for the quiz competition where the nine- member team is pruned down to three for the next stage of the competition.
Sounds interesting, right?
So, would you want to know the next STEM innovators? Do you want to know the team that goes home with the Founder’s Award? Keep watching the InterswitchSPAK 2.0 TV Show. And if you are not already watching, get a seat in front of your TV set again this Saturday.
The show airs on Africa Magic 154 on Saturday, at 5pm till 6pm. There will also be a repeat broadcast on at 2:30 – 3:30pm.
Other television stations broadcasting the show are AIT Network on Saturday, at (7pm) , TVC Lagos on Saturday, at (8pm) and Sunday, at(5:30), STV Jos on Sunday, (6pm) NTA Kano on Sunday, at (8pm), EBS Edo on Sunday, at (4pm), NTA Port-Harcourt on Sunday, at (5pm), DBS Asaba on Sunday, at (7pm)and OSRC Akure on Saturday, at( 6pm).
Each episode will also be uploaded on YouTube, should you miss any.
Amazing right?
Then, join us for the next 14 Saturdays (till February 8, 2020) as we witness the making of another team of African innovators.
