The Zenith Bank Tech Fair, themed “Future Forward 4.0: Embedded Finance, Cybersecurity & Growth Imperatives—The Impact of AI,” ended yesterday, with N77.5 million won at the keenly contested Hackathon session held at the Eko Convention Centre, Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The prize money was shared among 10 finalists selected from the over 1,700 contestants, with JumpnPass, a self-checkout technology solution reshaping the retail landscape in Africa, emerging as the overall winner and taking home the grand prize of N25 million.
This is in addition to a six-week mentorship and incubation program designed to help them grow and scale effectively, which will run from December 2024 to February 2025.
The first runner-up, CreditChek, a credit and verification service provider, won N20 million and a mentorship program, while the second runner-up, Salad Africa, a start-up that offers seamless integration of credit products for digital platforms, won N15 million and a mentorship program.
Other finalists that took home N2.5 million each include Regxta, CashAfrica, Middleman, Messenger, Pocketfood, Famasi Africa, and Kitovu.
Earlier during the program, the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Dame (Dr) AdaoraUmeoji, in her welcome address, 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.
In his goodwill message, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, called for a global approach to doing business in the country, saying: “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 local, we need to think global. For anything that we’re doing now, we need to be able to know that we are not just serving a local market but serving 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.”
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.