Payaza, a Nigerian-based fintech, has held the second edition of its PayAza hackathon which brings young creatives together to create, innovate and showcase their abilities to enable them to grow.
According to the company, the hhackathon-themed leveraging generative AI for a tailored financial journey aims to boost talent development in the country and create innovative payment solutions leveraging generative AI.
Margaret Cole, Product Marketing Manager, Payaza, speaking at the event said, “The tech industry is almost always interested in established, experienced and ready-to-use talent and this leaves little or no room for young nascent talents with so much potential and hunger with no opportunity to nurture, grow and demonstrate their skills in the right environment.”
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She explained that talents were identified and integrated into the Payaza tech environment from the previous edition where they were nurtured, grown and given the ability to demonstrate their skills. “Mentorship was also provided to many as they sojourn to become tech gurus in the future,” he said.
The company speaking on the theme of the event said the future of AI is the next frontier which has already begun.
“The future of AI is today, it is this very moment as we speak. AI will soon become the new way of life transcending across all sectors and industries and Payaza is in the business of providing payment solutions using up-to-date technologies and infrastructure so our customers’ needs are met. It is only logical that we begin to seek solutions that are AI embedded so we can achieve this goal.”
Meanwhile, winners emerged from the hackathon after showcasing their prowess in developing solutions that align with the event’s theme ‘Empowering Africa: Leveraging Regenerative AI for a Tailored Financial Journey’
Team Iya Finance emerged as the winner, going with the sum of $5000. The small team of three pioneered an AI financial tool that helps build financial literacy and make better financial decisions. This app based on Generative AI, is an automatic financial decision-maker that makes savings and other financial decisions for users.
The first runner-up team NaYa emerged the winner of a $3,000 prize after presenting their Idea of a robust data privacy, AI-based solution for tailored financial services while the second runner-up Second runner-up Team Enigma emerged $1,500 prize after presenting their Idea, AfriAid, a web app solution that leverages generative AI to help businesses manage their existing financial data and provide business insights from this data.
To select the winners, every team presented their demos to the panel of judges who tasked them to prove the viability of their ideas and helped them refine them and five teams competed to win the grand prize.
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The company stated that it allows businesses to perform and receive cross-border payments instantly and at very affordable rates, adding that the hackathon is the company’s way of growing the African payment industry and an opportunity for talents to create innovative payment solutions leveraging Generative AI.
