The Executive Director of FSI, Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos during the week. According to the brand navigator of FSI, a non-profit organisation committed to enabling startups within the technology and financial space, the ambassadors will be rewarded for their community efforts on their campuses. 

She added: “Also, we are holding the FSI innovation challenge within the student community across the six geopolitical zones, where winners will go home with lots of giveaway prizes.” 

Reeling out the achievements of FSI in the last four years, Aituaz stated that the company has registered its impact and presence in five continents. “Our impact is being felt in five continents, and our community strength is over 8,200 members, including 45 foreign members from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and North America,” she declared. 

Financial Services Innovators has gained recognition and acceptance as a brand in the highly competitive fintech ecosystem. One of such recognitions is the company’s partnership with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), FintechNGR and Mentorship Without Borders (WMB), a European firm providing free mentorship programmes in software development, data science and product management.

Aside empowering members on its platform with knowledge and technical support, FSI members have also graced international stages and won competitions. At the same time, three of their startups have equally been opportune to raise funds. “We have also provided technical support to over 2,500 individuals through our mentorship programmes, startup clinics and capacity building,” Aituaz reiterated. 

Since its launch in October 2021, the FSI Talent Hunt initiative has been enormously successful. Over 1,000 campus ambassadors have emerged from the competitions. And only recently, the Financial Services Innovators unveiled three virtual innovation labs in tertiary institutions to groom tech talents. The company has nurtured 55 start-ups on its business incubation platform, and ten have already launched their products. Within a short time, FSI has proven that an innovation sandbox with a vibrant community is a cost-effective product innovation and development approach. 

“We’ve indeed come a long way. Since commencing operations in 2020, over 140 MVPs have been developed in the FSI sandbox, 17 apps have been published in the Appstore, 8,000 people have accessed 375 API endpoints on the FSI sandbox, while over 487 teams have participated in the FSI hackathons,” the Executive Director said.

Winners have emerged in the maiden edition of the FSI Cashless Campus Innovation Challenge held virtually, recently.

Financial Services Innovators (FSI), a non-profit organisation committed to discovering tech talents in tertiary institutions and enabling start-ups within the technology and financial services space, organised the hackathon challenge.

The Cashless Campus Innovation Challenge is aimed at proffering solutions to digitize micropayments in tertiary institutions and their environs, including cashless transportation, cashless commerce, etc.

Team Techies defeated 10 other contestants to emerge as the winner, smiling to the bank with N100,000 while Teams Prodigies and Tap & Go emerged as the 1st and 2nd runners-up respectively.

The teams that emerged first in each participating school also went home with N100,000 each, a certificate of participation and internship opportunities.

However, all the finalists’ teams were given a slot each to attend the FSI’s business incubation programme.

Team Techies, which represented Al-Qalam University, Katsina, won with QRide, an innovative campus trip-booking app for students, staff and other residents.

Team Prodigies, also from Al-Qalam University, Katsina, pitched an app, Macco, aimed at providing faster payments and easy transactions for students and others on campus, using the student’s registration number as a unique identifier for processing transactions; while Team Tap & Go presented an app that authenticates individuals with their biometrics to effect payment for seamless transactions without cards or individual’s mobile phones on campus. Other winners of the competition are Teams Jafos, Cool Nerds, Bytecode, Cyberbros, WireMe, Painkil and Iconic Codes. 

According to Dr Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, the Executive Director, FSI, the cashless campus innovation challenge has shown that Nigeria is blessed with a minefield of talents, yet to be harnessed. 

“Until we harness this minefield of talents, we cannot change the narrative of Africa. I want to appreciate our partners, MFS Africa, Future Africa, Flourish Ventures, and most especially, Mr Iyin Aboyeji, chairman, FSI’s Board of Trustees, for their support. I also thank our judges, Eniola Boluogun, Binta Moustapha, and Salami Abolore for taking time out of their busy schedules to support this initiative,” she said. 

In his keynote address, Mr Aniedi Udo-Obong, a US-based Nigerian Program Manager and Software Developer with Google, counseled the participants that ideating is the next big thing, therefore the students should continue to innovate and not rest on their oars. 

“Don’t rely on your mental capability alone, ask for help. Use all resources available to you. Know the depth of the problem with the technology available to you. Do not run away from problems because money and value flow to where solutions are proffered,” he stated.

Moderated by Derek Nwafor, the Campus Cashless Innovation Challenge had 67 teams comprising 130 students drawn from six higher institutions spread across the country. They include Mountain Top University (MTU), Lagos; University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka; Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife; Al-Qalam University, Katsina; Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi.

She disclosed this at a media parley heralding the 3rd anniversary of the organisation in Lagos during the week.

According to the executive director, of FSI, a non-profit organisation committed to enabling startups within the technology and financial space, in its three years of operations, the company has had both direct and indirect impacts on the nation’s technology ecosystem through empowerment, entrepreneurship and mentorship.

Reeling out the company’s numerous achievements since its launch in 2021, Kola-Oladejo said: “Our achievements include the promotion of open innovation amongst top players in the tech ecosystem and enhancement of access to Fintech APIs. So far, 16 Fintech API partners including banks already have 321 API end-points on the innovations sandbox, while 125 Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) have been created from the sandbox. With 728 corporate members, 3,438 individual members, 2,535 student members and over 1,900 participants in nine innovation challenges, FSI has indeed come a long way.”

In the past three years, FSI had organised nine hackathons aimed at addressing financial inclusion challenges in agriculture, transportation, health, trade and commerce, as well as energy. Also, the Non Profit Organisation, which has members drawn from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and North America, played a leading role in the promotion of innovative culture in tertiary institutions across Nigeria.

“Right now, FSI has 2,535 student members, 712 campus ambassadors since its launch in 2021, while three universities have shown interest in adopting the FSI platform for tech innovation,” Kola-Oladejo explained, adding, “FSI has offered 141 free start-up clinics, had 114 participants in our Business Validation series, while $81,000 US Dollars was awarded winners of our innovation challenges to commence operations as start-ups. On both national and global scales, FSI has facilitated productivity through youth and startup empowerment, and enhancement of Nigerian tech products.”

Financial Services Innovators (FSI), a non-profit organisation committed to discovering tech talents in tertiary institutions and enabling start-ups within the technology and financial services space, organised the hackathon challenge in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NIBSS, GDG Lagos, Flourish, AXA Mansard, and Yellow Cowries.

Team ATBU defeated eight other contestants to emerge winner and smiled to the bank with a whopping N1 million, while the 1st runner-up, Team Sauki Health went away with N750,000, and the 2nd runner-up, Team BetaLife pocketing N500, 000.

Team ATBU won with Tickety, an innovative trip-booking platform for people with or without the Internet. 

Team Sauki pitched an online/offline app aimed at providing health services for Nigerians, while Team BetaLife presented a Blood Bank app that addresses the challenges of blood donation in the country. Other winners of the competition included Locapay, Digi Clinic, Trowpass, Rocket, Safepay, and Dono. They all went home with consolation prizes of N100,000 each.

According to the Executive Director, FSI, Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, the hackathon challenge is borne out of her desire to groom young talents in technology. 

“We believe that once we start grooming young talents in technology, we’ll be able to create employment opportunities. We also want to change the narrative. We have seen youngsters coming out of Nigeria doing great stuff like Flutterwave, Paystack etc., but there is still a lot to do. What the young innovators need is support. So, we are providing them with the ladder to grow and achieve their goals and dreams. That’s exactly what we are doing with this Financial Inclusion for All Hackathon challenge,” she submitted.

Welcoming the participants to Chrisland University, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. (Mrs) Chinedum Peace Babalola, who was represented by Prof. Temidayo Akinbola, not only wished them a successful deliberation but also implored the visitors to explore the many tourist attractions in the ancient city.

NACOS president, Olamilekan Abolade, in his opening remarks emphasized the uniqueness of this year’s conference, saying it was put together to discover the power of revitalizing the economy through technology.

“One of the highlights of the event is the innovation challenge in which we have partnered with Financial Services Innovators (FSI) to make it yet another best in the history of the association,” he stated.

Prof. Adesina Sodiya, President of Nigeria Computer Society, thanked FSI for organising the event and lending its support to NACOS. On his part, keynote speaker, Prof. Olumide Longe, Dean & Head of School, Faculty of Computational Sciences & Informatics, Academic City University, Accra, Ghana, challenged the young scholars to come up with computing innovations that will have a positive impact on Nigeria and across the world. 

“Crisis is a breeding ground for innovation. Therefore, what you need to fire your innovation is illumination,” he posited.

Derek Nwafor moderated the hackathon while Eniola Boluogun, Gbolahan Alli, Binta Moustapha, and FSI’s Advisory Board member, Wole Odetayo, served as judges. According to Odetayo, the winners and participants should continue to innovate and not rest on their oars.

Speaking shortly after his team emerged as the overall winner, ATBU’s leader, Divine Owoyemi, expressed gratitude to FSI for providing the platform to showcase their talents. 

“We are all Computer Science students of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi. We travelled from Kaduna to participate in the hackathon competition. We won because we came up with something that nobody has done before. We are excited to win, and we thank FSI for giving us the platform to showcase our talents,” he said.

About 74 teams from 28 states spread over the six geo-political zones of Nigeria registered for the hackathon competition. However, 12 teams were shortlisted to pitch their innovative ideas to a panel of judges at the grand finale. The teams developed technological applications to solve real-life problems in suburban communities.