Change Mechanics Pvt Ltd in collaboration with Mobilink Microfinance Bank Ltd has announced the launch of the “Bank the Unbanked” Ideathon, a strategy driven innovation challenge aimed at accelerating women’s financial inclusion in Pakistan. The initiative seeks to address one of the country’s most persistent development gaps, low adoption of formal banking among women, despite the availability of digital financial infrastructure.
Millions of women in Pakistan remain unbanked or underbanked due to deep rooted issues around trust, safety, usability, and relevance of existing financial services. While mobile banking technology is widely available, adoption has lagged as many women fear digital fraud, privacy breaches, and making costly mistakes in unfamiliar systems. Organizers of the ideathon argue that technology alone cannot solve this problem without better design, communication, and user understanding.
Unlike traditional hackathons that emphasize coding and software development, the Bank the Unbanked Ideathon deliberately operates as a no-code design and strategy sprint. Organizers will not require participants to build applications or write software. Instead, participants will focus on designing user journeys, marketing strategies, trust-building concepts, and operational process maps that banks can realistically implement within existing systems.
The competition is open to students and young professionals from a wide range of disciplines, including business, marketing, psychology, design, finance, development studies, and computer science. By removing the technical coding barrier, the organizers aim to widen participation and encourage diverse perspectives on financial inclusion challenges that are often social and behavioral rather than purely technical.
Participants will compete across three non technical challenge sprints. The first focuses on responsible and safe banking for women, addressing fears related to fraud, privacy, and misinformation. The second sprint centers on women centric SME products, targeting the financial realities of home based workers and micro entrepreneurs with irregular cash flows and limited collateral. The third sprint explores Islamic microfinance concepts for women and youth, emphasizing ethical, interest free financing models that are simple, digital, and culturally aligned.
The ideathon will be conducted in two stages. In the first stage, participants must submit an initial concept outlining their chosen sprint, target user persona, problem definition, and proposed solution. Shortlisted teams will advance to an on site ideathon and final pitch, where they will refine their ideas with mentor guidance and present implementation ready concepts to a jury. Only five to seven finalist teams will be invited to the grand finale to ensure a focused and high quality experience.
The winning team will receive a cash prize of PKR 50,000. More importantly, selected ideas may inform real world financial inclusion strategies within Mobilink Microfinance Bank’s existing ecosystem.
Organizers say the ideathon reflects a shift in how innovation challenges are designed, moving away from theoretical prototypes toward practical, adoption focused solutions. As Pakistan pushes to improve digital inclusion and economic participation, particularly for women, initiatives like Bank the Unbanked highlight the growing recognition that trust, design, and strategy are as critical as technology itself.
The deadline for idea submission has been extended to 26 December 2025 at 12:00 noon.