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Winners have emerged in the final round of the ‘IncludeMe’ virtual Hackathon competition, the FSI/FUTMinna innovation challenge, which held on Tuesday, April 12.
Team Stemlab defeated nine other contestants to emerge victorious, carting home a grand prize of N1.5 million while the 1st runner-up, Team Rocket, went away with a whopping N1 million and Team EarNest came third, earning N500,000.
Team Stemlab won with its innovative app, Ma’aji, an online and offline mobile payment platform in the Hausa language aimed at financial inclusion for both the banked and unbanked Nigerians. Team Rocket pitched an app, Oda Money, with which financial transactions in rural communities can be conducted without the use of cash or withdrawal from ATMs as cash is tokenised and accepted by merchants in the localities.
Team Earnest clinched the third position with Kara Banking, a non-smartphone voice banking app in the Hausa language for MSMEs aimed at conducting banking transactions irrespective of the user’s literacy level or social status.
Other winners of the competition include Binary Hub, Wazobia, Sleek, Pennywise, Lambar, Esususave, and Pay4Service. They all smiled to the bank with consolation prizes of N100,000 each and thanked FSI, FUTMinna; the sponsors, Flutterwave, Capricorn Digital Ltd., and Committee of e-Banking Industry Heads (CeBIH) for allowing them to showcase their talents and develop inclusive and innovative solutions for MSMEs.
