The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has announced the commencement of the inaugural edition of XKathon, its hackathon and idea innovation contest designed to improve the Nigerian capital market. This edition themed, “Millennial Participation in The Capital Market”, is aimed at enhancing retail investors’ participation in the capital market.
X-kathon is open to talented individuals, teams and ventures in the tech ecosystem who have the “magic wand” to explode the growth potentials of the Nigerian capital market. Interested participants should submit creative ideas, software/ tech solutions and hacks to address “low participation of millennials in the capital market” on or before October 8, 2019, via http://www. nse.com.ng/x-kathon.
To ensure the best candidates emerge at the grand finale on October 24, 2019, entries for the X-kathon will undergo rigorous review and the top 10 entries will be invited to a boot camp. The overall winner of the maiden edition of the Xkathon will win the sum of N5million while the first and second runner ups will win N3million and N2million respectively.
Speaking on the initiative, John Nsikak, Head Enterprise Innovation Hub at The Nigerian Stock Exchange said, “Technology remains an essential enabler for growth in the Nigerian capital market. While the banking sector has witnessed an increased level of innovation and disruption, leading to the creation of more value for customers, the capital market is yet to experience the same wave of change. At the NSE, we intend to change this narrative by leveraging X-kathon as one of the platforms to crowdsource ideas and solutions that will catalyze innovation and startups’ participation in our market.
