Winners have emerged from the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) 2018 Hackathon Challenge, created to enhance an enabling environment for the Nigerian payment system.
The grand finale, which held in Lagos recently, saw winners go home with N1 million, N2 million and N3 million for the 3rd, 2nd and 1st prizes respectively.
Team Tech Vault, Team Petram and Team PayBeans won first, second and third positions respectively, out of the 13 groups that participated in the challenge.
The Executive Director, NIBSS, Mrs. Christabel Onyejekwe, stated that NIBSS was committed to advancing the payment system structure especially the adoption and application of the globally accepted biometrics technology to ensure a greater drive of financial inclusion and in response to the clamour of customers in the country.
She explained that the end products of the challenge if utilised, would bring about greater ease in the conduct of business at all levels in the Nigerian ecosystem .
Onyejekwe pointed out at the event which saw winners emerge after developing various software, that the initiative would make payments and fund transfers for both the banked and the unbanked relatively easy and seamless .
The focus, according to her, was on authentication, identification and validation with finger prints due to global adoption of biometrics as a means of accurate identification and accountability in payments .
She further said that the use of biometrics would bring about a friendly system, ease, convenience and versatility in the sector.
“The objective is to address unemployment and promote entrepreneurship through the discovery of local talents who will develop software or Apps that would identify and implement different fingerprint authentication, validation and payment innovations using fingerprints. It is also to promote valuable collaboration with banks, FinTechs and other stakeholders. The initiative which is open to software developers of all ages and gender without restrictions, will help to grow talents,” Onyejekwe said.
