The Squad Hackathon 3.0, organized by HabariPay, the fintech arm of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), recently concluded in Lagos, highlighting Nigeria's rapidly expanding artificial intelligence talent pool. Held at the GTCentre, the competition attracted hundreds of student developers and AI innovators from universities across Nigeria, challenging them to create deployable solutions for financial inclusion, productivity, and digital infrastructure.
Surge in Developer Interest
The event saw a massive increase in participation compared to previous editions. Organizers received over 1,600 applications from across the country, with more than 600 shortlisted after rigorous technical and GitHub portfolio reviews. Eduofon Japhet, Managing Director of HabariPay, noted that participation increased more than tenfold, reflecting a strong appetite for AI-focused development among young Nigerian engineers.
Winners Tackle Informal Sector Challenges
Team Block X from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) emerged as the overall winner with their project, Guild. The three-member team, consisting of Treasure Uvietobore, Naheem Olaide, and Enoch Idowu, developed an AI-powered platform aimed at integrating informal workers into the formal financial system.
How Guild Works
The platform addresses the challenge of financial invisibility faced by millions of skilled informal workers who lack transaction histories or credit records. Guild uses Tola, a Nigerian-English conversational voice agent, allowing workers such as bricklayers and artisans to interact with the platform easily. It matches workers with employers, processes payments via Squad's infrastructure, and automatically builds a verifiable financial record. Organizers noted that consistent activity could unlock access to banking and credit services within 90 days.
Other Notable Projects
Another standout project was Tracker, developed by Sherif Sani, a computer science student at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Tracker is an AI-driven workforce productivity monitoring system that analyzes remote and onsite team activity while balancing performance analytics with privacy controls.
Corporate Support and Future Plans
GTCO Group CEO Segun Agbaje emphasized that the hackathon serves as a pipeline for identifying future tech leaders through practical problem-solving. He urged participants to prioritize resilience, collaboration, and ethical execution. HabariPay plans to provide post-event support, including mentorship, technical training, tuition assistance, and direct employment pathways within GTCO and HabariPay.
As Africa's largest startup ecosystem shifts toward artificial intelligence, corporate-backed initiatives like Squad Hackathon are crucial. If HabariPay successfully converts student prototypes into sustainable businesses, it could become a foundational infrastructure layer for Africa's digital future.
