The 10 contestants in the hackathon session at the fourth edition of the Zenith Tech Fair have received N77.5m in prize money.

The winners emerged at the tech fair themed ‘Future Forward 4.0: Embedded Finance, Cybersecurity & Growth Imperatives – The Impact of AI,’ held on Thursday in Lagos.

 The prize money was shared among 10 finalists who emerged from the

over 1,700 contestants took part in the hackathon.

A self-checkout technology solution, JumpnPass, emerged as the overall winner to take home the grand prize of N25m in addition to a six-week mentorship and incubation programme designed to help them grow and scale effectively, which will run from December 2024 to February 2025.

 The first runner-up was, CreditChek, a credit and verification service provider that leverages AI and open banking to streamline income and credit history verification for financial institutions, won N20m and a mentorship programme, while the second runner-up, Salad Africa, a start-up that offers seamless integration of credit products for digital platforms and software companies, won N15m as well as a mentorship program.

Other finalists including Regxta, CashAfrica, Middleman, Messenger, Pocketfood, Famasi Africa, and Kitovu won N2.5m each.

In her opening remarks at the tech fair, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Adaora Umeoji, expressed her appreciation to the founder/ Chairman, Dr Jim Ovia, for birthing the idea that led to the establishment of the Tech Fair initiative five years ago.

She thanked him for his vision and foresight in utilising technology to revolutionise the world of business and banking.

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 near future.

According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 70 per cent 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 also stressed the importance of innovation in ensuring strong and enduring institutions.

Umeoji added, “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.”

In his goodwill message, the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, called for a global approach to doing business in the country.

 “What we need to do is to be able to enhance our product and services to compete in the world. We can’t continue to act locally; we need to think globally. Anything that we’re doing now, we need to be able to know that we are not just serving a local market, we 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,” he said.

The tech fair also featured the launch of the bank’s digital wallet, EazyByZenith, which will help to support the bank’s retail and financial inclusion strategy.

There were multiple presentations on the leading technological innovations that cut across different aspects of life, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, risk management, compliance, financial intelligence, cloud computing, and communication technologies, with the keynote address, ‘Banking Transformation in a Digital World,’ delivered by a renowned Strategy & Digital Implementation Specialist, Lord Robin Speculand.

Goodwill messages were delivered by the Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, and the Vice President; Kashim Shettima, represented by Special Adviser to the Presidency on Economic Matters, Dr. Tope Fasua.