Winners Emerge at Wema Bank’s Hackaholics

Tuesday, April 02, 2019/01:15PM / WemaBank

Wema Bank’s maiden hackathon, Hackaholics, announced itswinners at a grand finale on Sunday, March 31, 2019. The event, hosted atCodeville, Wema Bank’s innovation lab, brought together some of the brightestminds in the country to be part of various activities including keynoteaddresses, panel discussions and training programs for the participants byOsmosis.

Hackaholics brought together startups and young techprofessionals to brainstorm, strategize and create solutions to the problemspresented. Solutions were screened by a team of judges who announced the winnerat the grand finale.

Among a number of groundbreaking solutions from the 20participating teams, Team EazyChange wonwith a solution that provides simpler payment for transportation. The solutionis programmed to ease the problem of scarcity of lower denominations fortransport 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 abackend solution designed to solve problems in Know Your Customer (KYC). Team Lendse came out as the secondrunner-up for creating a solution that tackles alternative credit scoring forfinancial institutions.

Besides the winning teams, participants who impressedwith their ideas and work attitude will gain access to incubation andacceleration programs at the Wema Bank’s innovation lab, Codeville. Theinnovation lab will help nurture tech solutions and other business ideas intomarketable brands through investment opportunities, business support andmentorship.

The bank also used the platform to announce Ignite by Wema, a special business account for micro,small and medium enterprises. Theall-inclusive account will support MSMEs to upgrade their businesses throughpartnerships with the bank, leverage on the bank’s network and marketingchannels, provide access to business advisory, incubation benefits andconcessions on business loans of up to N3m.

Hackaholics was organized in partnership withScooper and Ntel who provided media support and internet services respectively.Wema Bank will continue its track record of creating and promoting platformsthat will pave the way towards building the future of Nigeria’s fintech andbusiness sectors.