The Financial Innovation Hub, brings together the greatest minds on the African continent to lead in the research and innovation of financial technologies. It nestles itself right in the middle of the number one research university in Africa, the University of Cape Town.
Meet some of our core team members.
Co-Pierre Georg is an Professor at the University of Cape Town and an Associate Professor at EDHEC Business School as well as the Director of the Algorand-UCT Financial Innovation Hub. Co-Pierre is the original convener for the MPhil in Financial Technology masters at UCT where he taught also the course on "Fintech and Cryptocurrencies". His research interests focus on the nexus of financial innovation and financial stability. He obtained his PhD from the University of Jena in 2011 and has published both in finance and interdisciplinary journals. Co-Pierre’s research has received awards from the Algorand Foundation, the Ripple University Blockchain Research Initiative, the European Central Bank and the Volkswagen Foundation. He has been a consultant at various central banks and held visiting positions at MIT, Oxford, Princeton, and Columbia University. Aside from being a Research Associate at the Oxford Martin School for the 21st Century, Co-Pierre is a Research Associate at the Imperial College Center for Global Finance and Technology, as well as a Research Affiliate at the Columbia University Center for Global Legal Transformation.
Dr. Allan Davids is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town and holds the South African Reserve Bank Research Chair in Financial Stability Studies. Allan holds a PhD in Economics from UCT and has spent time as a visiting academic at several leading universities, including the Stern School of Business at New York University, the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. Allan’s research spans topics from housing, household and consumer finance, and public finance. At UCT, Allan teaches public finance and econometrics and also convenes the Masters in Financial Technology, the first Master’s degree specializing in Financial Technology on the African continent.
Anda Ngcaba holds a Bachelor Of Social Science from the University of Cape Town and a postgraduate degree from the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Prior to joining the Hub, Anda served as an investment and research officer for a technology focused private investment firm. Anda’s interest in blockchain led to him overseeing a blockchain investment strategy for his family office. At the Algorand-UCT Financial Innovation Hub, Anda serves as Chief Of Operations where he combines his blockchain, investment and project management experience to assist with the management and implementation of the various blockchain projects. In his spare time, Anda serves on the board of The Cortex Hub, an incubator/accelerator based in East London as a way of developing young entrepreneurs from his home province. Anda also serves as the Chairperson of Born To Be Free, a non-profit organization he founded during undergrad that focuses on digital inclusion for primary school students in underprivileged areas of Cape Town.
As the General Hub Manager at the Financial Innovation Hub, Lindiwe plays a pivotal role in exploring and promoting innovative technologies and use cases. Lindiwe holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Economics from Rhodes University. Her passion for economic development and empowering the youth led her to a rewarding role as a business development officer at a youth-focused non-profit organisation. In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Lindiwe was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Prize of 2021 from the French Republic. Now immersed in the rapidly-evolving blockchain industry, Lindiwe is particularly interested in its potential applications in education, finance, and governance. Her unwavering commitment to economic development remains at the core of her professional pursuits.
Danae holds an honours degree in Financial Analysis as well as a bachelors degree in Investment management from the University of Stellenbosch, and is currently busy with the research portion of her Masters degree in Finance Technology at the University of Cape Town. Her research focusses on data ownership in research and specifically unpacks what happens to knowledge or ideas after they get cited in major publications. Before joining the hub, Danae gained experience in financial modelling, data analytics and data visualisation through her role as a Technical Analyst at a data science and analytics consulting firm. Due to her growing interest in data provenance as part of data ownership sparked by her desertion research, Danae joined the Algorand-UCT Innovation hub, and takes on the role of head Software developer and Innovator.
Takunda Chirema holds a Masters in Financial Technology from the University of Cape Town. His thesis focused on the ownership of collaboratively created digital content from which Axone was born. He has an honours degree in Computer Science as well as a bachelors in Mathematical Statistics and Computer Engineering from the University of Cape Town. His interests lie in blockchain technologies with a focus on its application in digital content ownership and decentralized finance. At the Algorand-UCT Financial Innovation Hub, he is a Head Software Engineer and Innovator, with the primary role of formalizing and implementing blockchain related ideas.
Gary holds an Honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town. Prior to joining the hub, he was a Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he contributed in developing and maintaining a service to send event notifications to AWS Health customers. Gary’s passion for blockchain technologies ultimately compelled him to join the hub. Here, he hopes to deeply understand smart contracts (specifically within the Algorand Virtual Machine), their capabilities as well as limitations, and how these contracts can be applied to help solve problems that impact people and the environment. In his spare time, Gary enjoys a good high fantasy book and is a gamer at heart.
Si-Jia is currently completing the thesis portion of an MPhil in FinTech at UCT. She holds a Bachelor of Business Science in Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town and has had a keen interest in Computer Science and Data Science since her undergraduate degree. She is particularly interested in building tools to better understand data provenance and ownership in the digital economy. A prime believer in open-source technology, she has maintained that spending an hour to automate a once-off five-minute manual task is worth it if only to save someone else time later.
Bingle brings a rich background in Industrial Engineering from Stellenbosch University and a Master's degree in Financial Technology with distinction from the University of Cape Town. His expertise in privacy-preserving technology and ongoing PhD research in cybersecurity, specifically using machine learning to detect malware, makes him a valuable addition to our team. At the Hub, Bingle will focus on developing privacy-preserving open-source software, contributing to our commitment to enhancing data security and advancing technological solutions.