In February this year, Catherine Mahugu, a fourth year BSc Computer Science student at the School of Computing and Informatics, teamed up with Ella Peinovich, a graduate student at MIT, and entered the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition organized by the Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

The team submitted a product named SasaAfrica, a women‐owned and operated social enterprise that offers an innovative and independent platform for female artisans and entrepreneurs in Africa to create micro-enterprises, connecting developing world vendors to global e-commerce, even if they do not have access to the Internet, a computer, or a bank account. Focused on promoting under-served communities, SasaAfrica aims at shortening the distance between vendors in developing nations and the global marketplace by integrating MMS uploads, SMS notifications, and mobile money payments with an e-commerce storefront.