Wema Bank’s maiden hackathon, Hackaholics, announced its winners at a grand finale on Sunday, March 31, 2019. The event, hosted at Codeville, Wema Bank’s innovation lab, brought together some of the brightest minds in the country to be part of various activities including keynote addresses, panel discussions and training programs for the participants by Osmosis.
Hackaholics brought together startups and young tech professionals to brainstorm, strategize and create solutions to the problems presented. Solutions were screened by a team of judges who announced the winner at the grand finale.
Among a number of groundbreaking solutions from the 20 participating teams, Team EazyChange won with a solution that provides simpler payment for transportation. The solution is programmed to ease the problem of scarcity of lower denominations for transport fare within Lagos and other states. The winning team received the $10,000 prize and will also join the bank for a period of 6 months.
Team 2i became the first runners-up for a backend solution designed to solve problems in Know Your Customer (KYC). Team Lendse came out as the second runner-up for creating a solution that tackles alternative credit scoring for financial institutions.
Besides the winning teams, participants who impressed with their ideas and work attitude will gain access to incubation and acceleration programs at the Wema Bank’s innovation lab, Codeville. The innovation lab will help nurture tech solutions and other business ideas into marketable brands through investment opportunities, business support and mentorship.
The bank also used the platform to announce Ignite by Wema, a special business account for micro, small and medium enterprises. The all-inclusive account will support MSMEs to upgrade their businesses through partnerships with the bank, leverage on the bank’s network and marketing channels, provide access to business advisory, incubation benefits and concessions on business loans of up to N3m.
Hackaholics was organized in partnership with Scooper and Ntel who provided media support and internet services respectively. Wema Bank will continue its track record of creating and promoting platforms that will pave the way towards building the future of Nigeria’s fintech and business sectors.
Wema Bank, the pioneer of Nigeria’s first fully digital bank ALAT, offers a range of retail, SME banking, corporate banking, treasury, trade services and financial advisory to its customers. Wema Bank operates with a National Banking Licence, with a network of over 149 branches and service centres across Nigeria, backed by a robust ICT platform.