GTCO backs youth innovation as HabariPay Hackathon draws over 1,600 applicants

L-R: Managing Director, HabariPay, Eduofon Japhet; Team Block X members Treasure Uvietobore, Platform & Systems Engineer; Naheem Olaide, Frontend & ML Developer; and Enoch Idowu, AI & ML Engineer; Business Development Executive, HabariPay, Somtochukwu Ezisi; and Chief Marketing Officer, HabariPay, Yemi Atanda, during the presentation of the grand prize to Team Block X, winners of the HabariPay Squad Hackathon 3.0, held at the GTCentre, Victoria Island, Lagos, recently.

Stanley Ihedigbo

HabariPay, the fintech subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, has crowned Team “Block X” winners of the Squad Hackathon 3.0, following a fiercely contested innovation challenge that showcased the creativity, technical brilliance and artificial intelligence solutions developed by some of Nigeria’s brightest young software engineers and tech innovators.

The grand finale, held at the GTCentre, showcased a wide range of cutting-edge digital solutions designed to address pressing economic and societal challenges through artificial intelligence, automation, smart productivity systems and digital inclusion technologies.

Emerging as overall winners was Team “Block X,” made up of Treasure Uvietobore, a Platform and Systems Engineer; Naheem Olaide, a Frontend and Machine Learning Developer; and Enoch Idowu, an AI and Machine Learning Engineer, all from Obafemi Awolowo University.

The team impressed judges with their innovation, “Guild,” an AI-powered platform designed to bridge the gap between Nigeria’s vast informal labour market and the formal financial system.

The solution uses a Nigerian-English voice agent named “Tola” to connect informal workers with employment opportunities while integrating them into digital payment and financial services infrastructure. Through the platform, a bricklayer or artisan can call the voice assistant, secure a job, complete assigned tasks and receive payment seamlessly through Squad, HabariPay’s payment platform.

Over time, the transaction history generated through the system creates a verifiable financial identity for workers, enabling access to banking services, loans and credit opportunities within 90-day.

The innovation was widely praised for addressing one of Nigeria’s longstanding economic challenges — the exclusion of millions of informal workers from structured financial systems.

Now in its third edition, the Squad Hackathon has grown significantly into one of Nigeria’s leading youth-focused innovation platforms.

This year’s competition attracted more than 1,600 applications from students and young innovators across universities nationwide, highlighting increasing interest in artificial intelligence and digital entrepreneurship among Nigerian youths.

According to organisers, over 600 applicants were shortlisted after rigorous assessments based on technical expertise, team composition and GitHub portfolio submissions, while more than 500 participants advanced to the grand finale stage.

Speaking during the event, Group Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Segun Agbaje, described the hackathon as more than just a competition, noting that it serves as a platform for nurturing future technology leaders through practical problem-solving and innovation.

“You are the best of the best. Everybody who made it into this room today is already a winner,” Agbaje told participants.

He encouraged the young innovators to remain resilient, collaborative and ethically grounded while building solutions capable of transforming industries and improving lives.

“The world is not ruled by extroverts; it is ruled by thinkers,” he added.

Managing Director of HabariPay, Eduofon Japhet, said the 2026 edition represented the most ambitious version of the hackathon so far, with participation increasing more than tenfold compared to earlier editions.

According to her, the initiative was created to bridge the widening gap between classroom-based theoretical learning and practical technology-driven problem solving.

“We realised there is still a gap between classroom theory and practical problem-solving,” Japhet said. “This platform is designed to help students build real-world solutions using emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and smart systems.”

She further disclosed that HabariPay is developing a long-term mentorship and talent development pipeline aimed at supporting selected participants through training, tuition support and employment opportunities.

“We are not stopping at the competition,” she explained. “Some of these participants will work with us directly over the next few years through structured mentorship and hands-on development programmes.”

Another standout innovation at the event was “Tracker,” an AI-powered workforce productivity monitoring system developed by Sherif Sani, a Computer Science student of University of Lagos.
The platform leverages artificial intelligence to analyse workflow patterns, browser activities and task completion timelines for both remote and onsite teams, while also incorporating privacy-conscious monitoring mechanisms.

Participants at the event also engaged in coding marathons, live product demonstrations, technical assessments and networking sessions, as judges evaluated projects based on creativity, scalability, user impact and execution potential.

Industry observers say the growing success of the HabariPay Squad Hackathon reflects Nigeria’s rising influence in Africa’s digital innovation space, particularly in artificial intelligence, fintech and software engineering.

The competition also reinforces the commitment of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and HabariPay to strengthening innovation ecosystems, developing local technology talent and positioning Nigeria as a leading hub for digital transformation across the African continent.