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Nile Pioneers sponsors 2018 NASA ‘Space Apps Challenge' in Cairo CBE places technology as key driver to achieve financial inclusion, enhance entrepreneurial environment
The Nile Pioneers Initiative, co-launched by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to support entrepreneurship across Egypt, sponsored the NASA's Space Apps Challenge in Cairo this year, set up the primary camp for hosing the participants at Nile University. It will be Egypt's fourth local hackathon of NASA's Space Apps Challenge. The Space Apps Challenge is a two-day hackathon, where teams of technologists, scientists, designers, artists, educators, entrepreneurs, developers, and students collaborate and engage with publicly available data, to design innovative solutions for global challenges. The primary camp was visited by Mostafa Mounir, representative of the CBE's banking development sector; Heba Labib, executive director of the Nile Pioneers Initiative; Anne Ruth, cultural attaché of American Embassy in Cairo; Dina Tantawy, competition president; and Ahmed Aboul Saoud, representative of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in Egypt. According to Mounir, the CBE places technology as a key driver for achieving financial inclusion and enhancing the entrepreneurial environment as the bank's top priority. This was the reason behind launching a strategic partnership between the CBE and Nile University to establish the Nile Pioneers Initiative, which aims to support entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially in agriculture, industry, and digital transformation, he added. Labib called on Egyptian youth to unleash their ideas and imagination because what they are developing today will eventually be the technology of daily life tomorrow. She added that space apps provided over 2,000 inventions in the fields of agriculture, industry, health, electronics, information technology among others, noting that these inventions led to the revival of different economies and nations. The Nile Pioneers is a five-year initiative funded by the CBE and implemented by Nile University. It aims to support and develop entrepreneurship and SMEs, as well as boost local production.
