In line with its continuous support for the application of technology to societal problems, especially with the outbreak of the pandemic – COVID-19, Wema Bank set to hold the second edition of its very own innovation programme – Hackaholics 2.0.

However, due to the increasingly sensitive times faced by the world at large as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank has opted to go virtual with this year’s challenge. “This decision,” according to the bank, “was made both in respect to the protocols of social-distancing, as well as serving to highlight the bank’s response and adaptation to the new normal of telecommuting and tele-conferencing. Wema Bank will remotely pull together teams who have designed solutions for prevailing everyday challenges in these essential areas – Health-tech, Agric tech, Edutech, Financial technology services and Gaming & Betting.”

Samuel Omotayo, who heads the Innovation team at Wema Bank, has this to say about the program: “We are very excited to be hosting another innovation challenge aimed at solving problems in essential areas in a bid to further strengthen technology penetration in solving problems within communities, grow business owners and technology start-ups which would eventually help with the recovery process of the economy from the impact of the pandemic. We are calling on businesses, creative thinkers, tech enthusiasts, industry specialists and engineers to join us in this quest.”

Wema Bank is excited to be partnering with GreenHouse Capital Africa and Venture Garden Group to bring a highly immersive virtual program focused on supporting early stage fintech start-ups. They bring with them their collective technical experience in running high level acceleration programs, technology best practices and broad network of investors and partners to ensure that the participants get great benefits and value. Speaking on the program, Ruby Nimkar, Principal at GreenHouse Capital, said “One thing COVID-19 has proven is the need for technological advancement of our economy, as the pandemic brought virtually all aspects of the economy to a halt. Even as we continue to see impressive start-ups spring up around the continent, we remain focused on ensuring they get the right support through mentorship, capacity building and investment.”

Ten start-ups each stand a chance of getting up to $4,000 in business support with awesome benefits like access to market, direct link to industry experts, mentor network, access to APIs among other resources.

Business owners, Innovators, and creative thinkers, across Nigeria are all invited to register for the innovation acceleration program by visiting hackaholics.wemabank.com to demo their solutions which speaks to any of the problem areas. The programme can be followed on social media by following the conversations through the hashtag #hackaholics2.0.