Team ‘Block X’ wins GTCO’s HabariPay squad Hackathon 3.0

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc fintech subsidiary, HabariPay, has announced Team ‘Block X’ as the winner of the Squad Hackathon 3.0 after a highly competitive innovation contest that showcased some of Nigeria’s brightest young software developers, engineers and artificial intelligence innovators. Held at the GTCentre, the grand finale featured technology-driven solutions aimed at addressing key […]

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc fintech subsidiary, HabariPay, has announced Team ‘Block X’ as the winner of the Squad Hackathon 3.0 after a highly competitive innovation contest that showcased some of Nigeria’s brightest young software developers, engineers and artificial intelligence innovators.
Held at the GTCentre, the grand finale featured technology-driven solutions aimed at addressing key economic and social challenges, with strong emphasis on artificial intelligence, automation, productivity systems and digital inclusion.
Team ‘Block X’, made up of Treasure Uvietobore, Naheem Olaide and Enoch Idowu of Obafemi Awolowo University, emerged winners after impressing judges with “Guild,” an AI-powered platform designed to connect informal workers with the formal financial system.
The solution links artisans and informal workers to employers while integrating them into digital financial services.
In one use case demonstrated during the competition, a bricklayer interacts with “Tola,” the platform’s Nigerian English voice agent, gets matched with a job, completes the assignment and receives payment through Squad. Consistent transactions on the platform help users build a verifiable financial history that could enable access to banking services and credit facilities within 90 days.
Now in its third edition, the hackathon attracted more than 1,600 applications from students and young innovators across universities in Nigeria, reflecting growing interest in the country’s rapidly expanding technology ecosystem. More than 600 applicants were shortlisted based on technical competence, team structure and GitHub portfolio submissions, while over 500 participants advanced to the grand finale.
Speaking at the event, Group Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Segun Agbaje, described the hackathon as a platform for grooming future technology leaders through practical problem-solving.
“You are the best of the best. Everybody who made it into this room today is already a winner,” Agbaje said, adding, “The world is not ruled by extroverts; it is ruled by thinkers.”
He stressed the importance of resilience, collaboration and ethical execution in building sustainable innovation-driven enterprises.

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

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

She disclosed that HabariPay is developing a long-term mentorship and talent pipeline programme that will support selected participants through training, tuition assistance and possible employment opportunities.

Among other standout innovations at the event was “Tracker,” an AI-powered workforce productivity monitoring platform developed by Sherif Sani, a Computer Science student of the University of Lagos.

The solution uses artificial intelligence to analyse workflow patterns, browser activity and task completion timelines for both remote and onsite teams, while incorporating privacy-focused monitoring controls.

The event also featured coding marathons, live product demonstrations, technical assessments and networking sessions. Judges evaluated participating teams based on creativity, scalability, user impact and execution capability.