Team Block X from Obafemi Awolowo University emerged as champions and taking home a ₦5 million prize.

Team Setld claimed second place with ₦3 million.

Team Supermart earned ₦2 million in third.

The competition, themed: “Smart Systems: The Intelligent Economy,” recorded its most impressive turnout since inception, attracting over 1,600 undergraduate applicants from universities across Nigeria, more than ten times the participation figures from the previous edition.

Segun Agbaje, GTCO group chief executive officer, delivered the keynote, urging participants to recognise the global weight of their capabilities.

“You are not just among the brightest minds in Nigeria; you are among the finest talents anywhere in the world,” he told the audience. “If this hackathon were held in any country, your skills, ideas, and determination would still earn you a place here.”

Agbaje also made a case for the undervalued strengths of introverted thinkers.

“Charisma may open doors, but it is thoughtful minds that build lasting impact,” he said. “This hackathon is a platform for those quiet but brilliant minds to show the world what they are capable of.”

A Competition That Has Found its Footing

Eduofon Japhet, managing director of HabariPay, attributed the surge in interest to a growing community of alumni who have become vocal advocates for the programme.

“We’ve grown more than tenfold in participation,” she said. “Past participants from previous editions have become our strongest ambassadors, sharing how the experience transformed their skills, confidence, and careers. Their success stories created anticipation long before applications opened.”

From the 1,600-plus submissions, 600 teams were shortlisted, with over 500 proceeding through multiple competitive rounds to the grand finale. Japhet described a selection process designed for transparency, with evaluators assessing team quality, core skill sets, and prior work documented through GitHub portfolios.

The Stakes and the Rules

Organizers made clear from the outset that integrity was non-negotiable. Several teams were disqualified for violations including submitting multiple entries under different email addresses, participating remotely, and using AI tools such as ChatGPT. The decisions, Japhet noted, were necessary to preserve fairness for all participants.

The top three finishers earn more than prize money. Winners advance into the Squad Pinnacle Program, a three-year initiative offering structured training in front-end and back-end engineering, cybersecurity, and product development, with the explicit aim of preparing participants for employment in Nigeria’s tech industry.

A Standout Pitch: Guild

Among the solutions that drew attention during the finals was Guild, a platform designed to connect informal workers, artisans, tradespeople, and daily wage earners, with employers and the broader financial system.

The concept uses a voice agent named Tola, operable in Nigerian English, to match workers such as bricklayers to job opportunities and process payments through Squad’s infrastructure.

After 90 days of activity, users accumulate a financial record that formal lenders can assess, a potentially significant step toward financial inclusion for millions of Nigerians historically locked out of the banking system.

From Participant to Mentor

One of the event’s more telling narratives came from Oluwamuyiwa, a third-place finisher in a previous edition who returned this year not as a competitor but as a mentor, guiding teams through the pressures of building a functional product under tight time constraints.

“The main challenge was building the app from an idea within a short time before presenting on stage,” he recalled, a challenge he now helps others navigate.

Not every team made it to the finals, but the spirit of the event extended beyond the podium. Moses, team leader of Team Sapphire from Zaria, described overnight build sessions and travel disruptions on the road to the competition. Despite not advancing to the top 50, the team’s AI-driven agricultural e-commerce concept, which holds buyers’ payments in escrow until product verification, is one they intend to continue developing independently.

Looking Ahead

Hackathon 3.0 marks a measurable step forward in HabariPay’s stated mission to close the gap between university education and the practical demands of Nigeria’s tech economy. With each edition expanding its reach, the programme is quietly becoming one of the more credible pipelines for engineering talent in West Africa.

For HabariPay and GTCO, that appears to be precisely the point.

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A payment gateway enables businesses, governments, NGOs, charities, and others to receive payments from their websites or other digital touchpoints through cards, transfers, USSD, wallets, etc, for themselves or on behalf of their customers.

While there are a number of payment gateway providers in Nigeria, the 10 prominent players are listed below:

1. Remita
2. Paystack
3. Flutterwave
4. Interswitch
5. Seerbit
6. Fincra
7. Kora
8. Moniepoint
9. eTranzact
10. HabariPay

1. Remita

Launched in 2005, the Remita payment gateway is offered by Remita Payment Services Limited, a subsidiary of SystemSpecs. It is robust and resilient and is in use by many SMEs, corporates, religious institutions, NGOs, governments, fintechs, etc.

Selected by the Central Bank of Nigeria, it serves as the payment gateway for the National Treasury Single Account (TSA) initiative, processing millions of local and foreign transactions across multiple channels. Remita processes more than N60 trillion in transaction value annually.

2. Paystack

Founded in 2015, Paystack is a leading payment gateway provider. Its payment gateway enables customers to easily activate collections on their digital touchpoints.

By July 2024, Paystack announced it had processed a staggering N1 trillion in a single month – a milestone that spoke volumes of its rapid adoption among startups and enterprises.

Founded by Nigerian entrepreneurs, Paystack was acquired by global payment company Stripe in October 2020.

3. Flutterwave

Founded in 2016, Flutterwave is a pan-African payments company providing payment gateway services to merchants, fintechs, and other entities. Merchants use Flutterwave payment gateway to receive payments in different currencies through cards, mobile money, USSD, and bank transfers. Flutterwave processed US$31 billion in transaction value in 2024.

4. Interswitch

Founded in 2002, with an initial focus on card switching and processing, Interswitch expanded into providing payment gateway services that enable customers to receive money digitally through different payment channels. Interswitch processed 1.2 billion transactions in March 2023.

5. Seerbit

Founded in 2019, Seerbit is a Nigerian fintech startup with a mandate to bridge Africa’s offline–online payment divide. The Seerbit payment gateway enables its customers to receive payments digitally through multiple payment channels. As of 2025, Seerbit is active in 12 African countries.

6. Fincra

Founded in 2021 with a grand vision to create a borderless Africa seamlessly connected to global finance. It provides multiple APIs for pay-ins (payment gateway, payment links, virtual accounts) and pay-outs (bulk disbursements, IMTO‑licensed transfers). Between 2023 and 2024, Fincra processed over US$10 billion in transaction value.

7. Kora

Founded in 2017, Kora is among the 10 leading payment gateway providers in Nigeria. It initially started as a blockchain remittance platform before pivoting to B2B Payment infrastructure services.

In addition to its payment gateway service, it now offers pay-ins, payouts, virtual accounts, and card issuing across Africa – helping local and global businesses scale in multiple currencies.

8. Moniepoint

Founded in 2015 as Teamapt, Moniepoint has evolved into a leading payment company. Its Monnify payment gateway allows merchants to receive payments through multiple channels, including cards, bank transfers, USSD, etc. As of 2025, Moniepoint processes roughly US$17 billion monthly.

9. eTranzact

Founded in 2003, eTranzact is a leading payments company that provides a wide-array of payment solutions. Its payment gateway Webconnect, enables businesses to accept payments via cards, USSD, bank transfers, etc.

Merchants on Webconnect benefit from seamless integration, a transaction dashboard, and prompt settlements. eTranzact processes trillions of Naira in payment value annually.

10. HabariPay

Founded in 2021, HabariPay is the fintech subsidiary of GTCO. Its Squad payment gateway allows merchants to collect payments from a variety of payment channels, including cards, bank transfers, USSD, etc. HabariPay processed N27.4 trillion in 2024 alone.

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