The ten participants in the fourth edition of the Zenith Tech Fair’s hackathon session have been awarded N77.5 million in prize money.
The winners were announced at the tech fair “Future Forward 4.0: Embedded Finance, Cybersecurity & Growth Imperatives – The Impact of AI,” which took place in Lagos on Thursday.
The ten finalists who made it out of the competition split the prize money. The hackathon attracted more than 1,700 participants.
JumpnPass, a self-checkout technological solution, won the N25 million top prize and a six-week mentorship and incubation program that would help them grow and scale successfully. The program will run from December 2024 to February 2025.
The first runner-up, CreditChek, a credit and verification service provider that uses AI and open banking to expedite income and credit history verification for financial institutions, received a mentorship program and N20 million. The second runner-up, Salad Africa, a start-up that provides smooth integration of credit products for software companies and digital platforms, also received N15 million.
Each of the other finalists—Regxta, CashAfrica, Messenger, Middleman, Pocketfood, Famasi Africa, and Kitovu—received N2.5 million.
Adaora Umeoji, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, thanked Dr. Jim Ovia, the founder and chairman, during her introductory remarks at the event for conceiving the concept that resulted in the birth of the Tech Fair initiative five years ago.
She expressed her gratitude for his vision and insight in using technology to transform the banking and business industries.