On the 22nd and 23rd of November, in a room decked with flowers at the Wheatbaker Hotel in Lagos, five teams competed to win the $5,000 grand prize of the PayAza 2.0 hackathon. PayAza Africa Limited is at the forefront of innovative and cost-effective payment solutions. The fintech solution allows businesses to perform and receive cross-border payments instantly and at very affordable rates. This hackathon is the company’s way of growing the African payment industry. The hackathon themed “Empowering Africa – Leveraging Generative AI For a Tailored Financial Journey,” was an opportunity for problem solvers to create innovative payment solutions leveraging Generative AI.
Participants were grouped into five teams, paired with mentors, and tasked with building fintech solutions. Judges for the event included Adeoluwa Akomolafe, the Chief Information Officer of Wema Bank; Tife Akeju, Country Manager at Obsidian Achernar; Seun AlleyCEO and founder of Fez Delivery Co.; Barong Asiodu, Head of Transformation Western Africa at Pernod Ricard; Jacqueline Aby, CEO and Founder of MagmaTech; Kayode Fadahunsi, CEO of Prosperis Holdings; , Adetayo Bamiduro, Co-founder of MAX; and Edwin Enwegbara, the Executive Director of Eauxwell Nigeria Limited. Also in attendance were prestigious dignitaries including Tolani Sule Akibu, the commissioner for tertiary education in Lagos state who spoke about fostering collaboration between the tech industry and tertiary institutions in Lagos state. He also delved into the tech initiatives of the state government and commended PayAza Africa Limited for their commitment to innovation and hosting this invaluable and consequential hackathon.
The event which was a resounding success saw the emergence of Team Iya Finance as the winner. The small team of three pioneered an AI financial tool that helps build financial literacy and make better financial decisions. This app based on Generative AI, is an automatic financial decision-maker that makes savings and other financial decisions for users. It is designed to analyze users’ spending patterns and financial history and create a predictive path to their financial goals. The team consisting of Chinwendu Nweje (Product Manager), Ogechukwu Ata (Frontend Developer), and Francis Okocha Ojeah (Backend Developer and best-performing team member) were mentored by Unyime Tommy and Kehinde Omotoso and went on to clinch the $5,000 grand prize for their innovative solution.
To select the winners, all five teams presented their demos to the panel of judges who tasked them to prove the viability of their ideas and helped them refine them. Other teams and their solutions include:
First runner-up: Team NaYa ($3,000 prize)
Idea: a robust data privacy, AI-based solution for tailored financial services.
Team members: Victor Agwa, Gideon Onyewuenyi (Best performing team member), and Increase Chima.
Second runner-up: Team Enigma ($1,500 prize)
Idea: AfriAid, a web app solution that leverages generative AI to help businesses manage their existing financial data and provide business insights from this data.
Team members: Mkpouto Inyang (Best performing team member), Sophia Ezeh, Youdiowei Oyineteimorde, and Anameti Umoh
Team Peerloom
Idea: CreditCheq, an AI-based solution for instant financial checks for loans.
Team members: Blessing Anyaudo, Samuel Okpe, Boluwatife Adewusi (Best performing team member), and Emmanuel Adeeko
Team Payverdict
Idea: Ada, a personalized AI marketplace assistant to solve customer service inefficiencies.
Team members: Oromidayo Owolabi, Johnpaul Eyibra (Best performing team member), Oreoluwa Somuyiwa, Daniel Olasupo, and Olajide Ojo
Everybody was a winner at the PayAza 2.0 hackathon. The event came to an end with the best-performing team members getting $200 and each participant gifted $100 and a certificate of participation. The winning team will have their idea backed by Payaza Africa Limited and the company also hopes to recruit some outstanding participants.
