#CashlessLagosHackathon: Team Blended Emerges Winner in the LSETF-Sponsored Event

After 3 days of brain racking and hacking, Team Blended has emerged the winner of the financial-focused hackathon — Cashless Lagos Hackathon 2018, organized by the Lagos State Education Trust Fund (LSETF) through its Lagos Initiates Project, in partnership with VISA West Africa, Ventures Garden Group and Passion Incubator.

https://twitter.com/iamfemifactor/status/1041444911743156224

Organised with a focused on creating new innovative technology-based financial solutions that will help Micro, Small and Medium Entreprises (MSMEs) in Lagos carry out daily cashless transactions with ease, the hackathon hosted an array of Nigerian software developers, programmers, coders, data specialists and designers who were shared into 7 teams.

The #CashlessLagosHackathon is underway! Here are the respective teams trying to learn the problems of the @LSETF beneficiaries. pic.twitter.com/K2dXqsXurK

— Lagos Innovates (@lagosinnovates) September 14, 2018

Related Post: #SecureLagosHackathon: Team LSFlow Emerges Winner in the LSETF Competition

The #CashlessLagosHackathon is underway! Here are the respective teams trying to learn the problems of the @LSETF beneficiaries. pic.twitter.com/K2dXqsXurK

— Lagos Innovates (@lagosinnovates) September 14, 2018

And after the three-day hacking bootcamp (September 14th – 16th) held at the Vibranium Valley in Lagos, three winning teams with the most innovative solutions were chosen.

We have our winners! Team Blended in 1st place, Mavericks in 2nd and Lagos Pay in 3rd! #CashlesslagosHackathon pic.twitter.com/BTpyrsgpGe

— Lagos Innovates (@lagosinnovates) September 16, 2018

Team Blended emerged the winner cashing home the grand prize of N2 million with its solution that allows merchants get validation of transactions via USSD with mobile phone numbers as User pass and authentication.

Team Maverick won the second prize, N1million, with its mobile-based solution that allows merchant pay in advance for services, schedule appointments, while also helping them keep track of their payment inventories.

While in the third position came Team LagosPay who developed a solution that collects payments electronically, by leveraging already existing payment channels, and rewarding payments with gifts and points, clinching a N500,000 reward in the process.

Here's the moment Team Blended were announced winners of the #CashlessLagosHackathon ❤️😍 pic.twitter.com/21psJS7ukt

— Passion Incubator (@P_Incubator) September 16, 2018

Speaking on the winning teams, General Manager, Visa West Africa, Kemi Okusanya, expressed Visa’s commitment to ensuring innovative payment systems.

We constantly strive to reduce reliance on cash, and encourage the development of a digital payments ecosystem for both individuals and businesses. I am very impressed with the quality of solutions developed by these teams and look forward to seeing them adopted by businesses across Nigeria. –Kemi Okusanya

The grants provided as well as Visa’s partnership would be used by each team for the development of their solutions, keying into the trending digital innovation of cashless transactions and transforming Lagos and Nigeria as a whole into a cashless ecosystem.