Zenith Bank has received 2,822 applications for its Zecathon 6.0 innovation programme, with N180 million allocated to support businesses and technology innovators.
Mr Lanre Oladimeji, the bank’s General Manager, disclosed this at the grand finale of the competition in Lagos on Wednesday.
Oladimeji said the applications comprised 1,609 entries for the Business Pitch category and 1,213 for the Hackathon category.
He said the programme’s funding had increased to N90 million for each category, up from N70 million previously.
According to him, the initiative aims to help entrepreneurs develop their solutions, scale their businesses and access strategic partnerships, mentorship and collaboration opportunities.
“The applications reflect the growing interest among Nigerian entrepreneurs,” he said.
Oladimeji explained that the Business Pitch category targeted growth-stage businesses with proven products, sustained revenue and demonstrated market traction.
He said the category was designed to help such enterprises expand their operations and strengthen their prospects for sustainable growth.
The finalists in the Business Pitch category included Construct Technology Ltd., ProDev, Farmer Run, AUI Brand and Sportify.
Hackathon finalists included Team 10xBrain, Team Ominira, Team Solobanking, Team Rumour Hunters and Team Avera.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Jhmeel Mikali, a software engineer and member of Team 10xBrain, said the team developed an application called Gaskiyaa to help protect bank customers against fraud.
Mikali said the application, whose name means “truth” in Hausa, was designed to provide an additional layer of security between customers and their banks.
He explained that the app would intercept incoming calls and messages, assess their authenticity and alert users to potential scams and phishing attempts.
According to him, the technology is intended to help customers distinguish genuine bank communications from fraudulent messages and calls.
Mikali said winning the competition would provide funding to scale the application and begin pilot testing with Zenith Bank and other financial technology companies.
He added that the team hoped to launch the application within three months of securing the necessary support.
“The experience has been good so far, and we are confident we will win,” he said.
NAN reports that Zecathon is a flagship start-up pitch competition, hackathon and innovation programme organised by Zenith Bank Plc in partnership with Beyond Limits Global.
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