Draft:Innocent Kawooya

Innocent Kawooya (Born 30 January 1988) is a Ugandan corporate executive, computer programmer, and a financial inclusion expert. He is the co-founder and CEO for the HiPipo. He is the CEO of The Digital Impact Awards Africa. He is serving as a co-chair on the international Mojaloop Community Council.

Personal life and education
Kawooya was born in Masaka District in 1998 to Anthony Kalule (a head teacher) and Florence Namatovu Kalule (a retired senior woman). He is the second born among his three children. He is a father to three girls.

Kawooya studied his primary level education at Victory nursery School and also at Molly & Paul Primary School in 2001. He completed his O-Level studies at St. Henry's College Kitovu (SHACK) in 2005. He completed his A-Level education at St. Mark’s College Namagooma (SMACON) in 2007. Kawooya graduated with a Bachelor of science in Information technology from Sikkim Manipal University in Kampala. He attained a Professional Leadership Certificate from Harvard University.

Career and work experience
Kawooya served as junior lecturer for four years at the Makerere University College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He served as an ICT tutorial Assistant at the Faculty of social sciences at Makerere University.

In 2005, Kawooya co-founded HiPipo with John Mark Ssebunya. In 2009, Kawooya became the CEO for HiPipo. And under his leadership awards were intiated and these include; HiPipo Music Awards in 2012 and the Digital Impact Awards Africa (DIAA) in 2013. Other initiatives under his leadership include; 40-Days 40-FinTechs, the Women-in-FinTech Hackathon, Women-in-FinTech Summit, Women-in-FinTech Incubator and FinTech Landscape Exhibition. They were funded by the Bill and Mellinda Gates Foundation since 2019. Kawooya is the CEO of The Digital Impact Awards Africa.

In 2019, Kawooya was the manager for Golola Moses and he accompaned Golola to present his World kickboxing Federation champion belt to the Jacob Oulanyah.

In 2020, Kawooya was elected as the co-chairperson of the International Open Foundation Mojaloop Community Council a position he served in for one year. In 2023, he was elected as the co-chair for theinternational open-source foundation Mojaloop Community Council making him the first Ugandan to sit on the Mojaloop's governing community.

In 2021, Kawooya was a script writer, co-directed and co-produced the 'Life of a Champion' movie staring Golola Moses and it was the first Ugandan produced film to be streamed on Amazon Prime. He collaborated with other companies to produce that included; NG Films, Koncepts and Sakyas, MET Media, Owaraga Still and Motion, Wakaliwood, and Decent Africa  

In 2021, Kawooya stood as an independent candidate during the 2021 Kampala City Lord Mayor Elections. The candidates included; Ben Lule, Erias Lukwago(FDC candidate), Nabilah Naggayi Sempala (NUP candidate), Charles James Ssenkubuge (Democratic Party candidate), Jose Chameleone, Ragga Dee among other candidates. Erias Lukwago retained his Lord Mayor seat for Kampala in 2021 after he got 194,592 votes and Kawooya got 762 votes.

In 2022, Kawooya was a mentor for the women FinTech developers during The 2022 Women in FinTech Hackathon that took place in Kampala. During the Hackathon, Kawooya told the participants to develop fintech solutions that revolved around the mobile ecosystem as it was growing fast and that Mobile Network Operators were introducing mobile money on social media platforms and had started enabling their customers to interact with Airtificial Intelligence. He informed the hackthon participants that they could use the Mojaloop to develop globally accepted secure and interoperable payment systems.

In July 2023, Kawooya was a mentor for the 2023 FinTech Lanscape Exhibition that was held in Kampala.

In 2024, Kawooya was appointed as the chairperson of the Bank of Uganda's Promote Gender Inclusive Finance Working Group as part of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy from 2023 to 2028.

Awards and recognitions

 * CEO of the Year 2021 to 2022 by TIG Network Afrika.