Wema Bank’s maiden hackathon, Hackaholics, came to a close on Sunday, March 31, 2019, with the emergence of creative solutions and the award of the grand prize to the most innovative solution.
The 3-day event, hosted at Codeville, Wema Bank’s innovation lab, gathered startups, young tech professionals and smart individuals who brainstormed and designed solutions for their chosen problem areas. A team of judges who are tech experts and innovators screened solutions developed and decided the winner at the grand finale.
Hackaholics delivered a number of groundbreaking solutions from the 20 participating teams. One outstanding solution which also won the $10,000 grand prize is Team EazyChange’s solution for transport payment. The solution will put an end the challenged posed by the scarcity of lower denominations in paying transport fare within Lagos and across the country. With this solution, ‘no change’ will no longer be an issue. The winning team will also join the bank for a period of 6 months.
Team 2i became the first runner-up for a backend solution designed to solve problems in Know Your Customer (KYC) while 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 with impressive 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.
At Hackaholics, the bank also announced 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, access to a 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.
