In line with its mission of empowering businesses and young innovators across Africa, HabariPay’s Squad has announced the launch of its first-ever hackathon, “Take on Squad Hackathon 1.0.” The social coding event is scheduled to hold on January 19th and 20th 2024, at the state-of-the-art GTCO Training Complex, Tayo’s Plaza, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Take on Squad Hackathon 1.0 is targeted at young innovators in universities and other tertiary institutions in Nigeria and challenges competing teams to create innovative solutions to problems within their immediate community as well as the wider society. Essentially, the hackathon is designed to impact young Nigerians positively by providing a platform to equip aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators with transformative technological capabilities, enabling them to collaboratively develop practical, innovative tech solutions and refine their coding skills. Participants in the hackathon will have the exclusive opportunity to leverage Squad’s cutting-edge APIs in executing their ideas.

The two-day event promises to be action-packed, featuring intense coding sessions on day one followed by product demos, panel discussions and the announcement of winners on day two. The team with the most innovative idea will be awarded N2.5 million, the first runner up will get N1.5 million, while the third placed team gets N1 million. Additionally, the top 3 teams will have the unique opportunity to join the Squad Hackademy, where they will receive mentorship and access internships and job opportunities facilitated by Squad.

Commenting on the inaugural Take on Squad Hackathon, Eduofon Japhet, Managing Director of HabariPay Ltd, said: “We strongly believe in the power of young minds to drive positive change in the society. This is reflected in our approach to providing simple, innovative solutions to everyday problems faced by small and mid-sized businesses across Africa with Squad. The Take on Squad Hackathon is the first of many initiatives to offer young, enterprising students a platform to engage meaningfully with technology and showcase their creativity and problem-solving abilities.”

Registration is still ongoing for the Take on Squad Hackathon 1.0. Interested teams (of not more than 4 members per team) are welcome to apply at https://squadco.com/hackathon/.

• About HabariPay

HabariPay Ltd is the fintech subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, providing best-in-class payment solutions to help businesses in Africa grow and thrive.

Licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), HabariPay’s solutions include Squad – a complete payment tool to make in-person and online payments simpler, HabariPay Storefront – an e-commerce website to sell products and services, and Value-Added Services – to help merchants access cost-effective and flexible airtime and data bundles to run their businesses, as well as a switching infrastructure that enables tech-focused businesses to optimise cost and make transactions more efficient. Thousands of merchants currently leverage Squad’s payment solutions for their daily business operations.

HapariPay recently received Mastercard’s Award For Accelerating Digital Acceptance in Africa and was awarded “Innovative Mobile Payment Solution” for its SquadPOS product by TIA.

• About Squad

Squad is a complete payments solution that is reliable, secure, and affordable, making receiving in-person and online payments simple and convenient.

Our goal is to support SMEs, micro merchants, large corporations and other fintechs (Tech Stars) with the tools they need to thrive in an evolving digital economy and expand beyond their current market reach.

Squad’s current products and service offerings include SquadPOS, Squad Payment Links, Squad Virtual Accounts, USSD, and E-Commerce Storefront.

Find out more at www.squadco.com.