A total sum of N77.5 million in prize money was won at the end of a keenly contested hackathon session at the Fourth Edition of the Zenith Tech Fair held in Lagos State on Thursday, November 21, 2024.
The prize money was shared among ten finalists who emerged from the over 1,700 contestants that took part in the hackathon, with JumpnPass, a self-checkout technology solution reshaping the retail landscape in Africa emerging as the overall winner and taking home the grand prize of N25 million.
This is in addition to a six-week mentorship and incubation program designed to help them grow and scale effectively, which will run from December 2024 to February 2025.
The first runner-up, CreditChek, a credit and verification service provider which leverages AI and open banking to streamline income and credit history verification for financial institutions, won N20 million and a mentorship programme.
The second runner-up, Salad Africa, a start-up which offers seamless integration of credit products for digital platforms and software companies, won N15 million as well as a mentorship programme.
Other finalists who took home N2.5 million each included Regxta, CashAfrica, Middleman, Messenger, Pocketfood, Famasi Africa, and Kitovu.
Speaking at the event, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr Adaora Umeoji, expressed her appreciation to the Founder and Chairman, Dr Jim Ovia, for birthing the idea that led to the establishment of the Tech Fair initiative five years ago.
Umeoji thanked Ovia for his “vision and foresight in utilising technology to revolutionise the world of business and banking.”
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Commenting on the hackathon, she said: “This prestigious annual event was created to empower and nurture young fertile minds. We hope to produce the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk from the Zenith Bank Hackathons in the nearest future.
“According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 70% of Nigeria’s population are youths which is an economic asset when properly harnessed. This is part of the reason why Zenith Bank is hosting this event to support the development of technology startups. Their success not only fosters innovation and growth in Nigeria, but it also plays a vital role in creating employment opportunities for our youth.”
She further stressed the importance of innovation and embedded finance in ensuring strong and enduring institutions, saying: “It is paramount that we adapt and adopt technology to stay ahead of the curve.
“We have seen various cases of companies that failed because of their lack of innovation. It is quite obvious that when companies fail to innovate; they can easily be displaced, so this is not the time to be orthodox, innovation should be a top priority for us.”
Also speaking at the event, Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu called for a global approach to doing business in the country.
Sanwo-Olu said: “What we need to do is to be able to enhance our product and services in order to compete in the world. We can’t continue to act local, we need to think global. Anything that we’re doing now, we need to be able to know that we are not just serving a local market, we actually want to serve the global market, and that’s why I’m glad that consistently, for the past four years.
“I have kept up with the Zenith Tech Fair. I am sure 5.0 should be bigger and better than what we have today, but for us as a government, what we need to do is to continue to use platforms like this to reassure you of our readiness to provide an enabling environment for your ideas and innovative solutions.”
Described as a huge success by participants, the tech fair featured the launch of Zenith Bank’s digital wallet, EazyByZenith, which the bank said will help to support its retail and financial inclusion strategy.
The fair also included presentations on technological innovations that cut across different aspects of life, such as Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Compliance, Financial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, and Communication Technologies.
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