G20 TechSprint 2025 launched in SA

The 2025 edition of the global TechSprint competition has been launched by the BIS Innovation Hub and the South African Reserve Bank, under the G20 Presidency.

Now in its sixth year, the G20 TechSprint’s theme for 2025 is ‘trust and integrity in scalable and open finance’.

Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank said via a video address that this year’s focus is on open finance and finding technological solutions that are scalable, while enhancing trust and integrity in these systems.

“Trust and integrity are the two pillars that form the backbone of any resilient financial system.”

Developers from around the world are invited to build innovative solutions for verifiable digital identity, consumer-consented credit data portability, and fraud and cyber risk mitigation, to pave the way for scalable and open financial ecosystems underpinned by trust and integrity.

Every year, The G20 TechSprint fosters the development of cutting-edge technological solutions to pressing global challenges and the priorities of the global regulatory and central bank community.

“We believe that these challenges are not only globally relevant but also what is needed on the African continent, says Kganyago.

“We are looking for solutions that will bring more people into the digital economy and enable cross-border trade, especially within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework.”

This year’s TechSprint will focus on three problem statements, formulated by the BIS Innovation Hub and SARB:

• Digital identity solutions: establish trust among financial institutions through innovative, verifiable, and privacy-preserving digital identity technologies.

• Credit data portability: improve the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to finance through secure, consumer-consented data exchange solutions that facilitate seamless cross-border sharing of credit information.

• Solutions to mitigate fraud and cyber risks: drive wider adoption of fast payment systems globally — and promote financial inclusion and economic growth —through technology designed to reduce fraud and cyber risks.

“As SARB embarks on an ambitious agenda to modernise South Africa’s payment system and make a meaningful contribution to the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments, we hope this TechSprint will unlock fresh thinking and spark bolder ideas beyond what we have seen so far,” says Kganyago.

G20 TechSprint: How to participate

• Anyone interested should register on the competition page, and submit tech solutions to one or more problem statements.
• Shortlisted teams will be invited to develop their solutions over an eight-week period and will have an opportunity to showcase them and receive feedback from national authorities and invited experts.
• An independent panel of experts will choose one winning solution for each problem statement, to be announced in November.
• Winners for each category (problem statement) will receive an award of USD 30,000. All short-listed projects receive a stipend of about USD 5,000.
• The last day to submit proposals is 20 June 2025.