May 22, 2026
By Prince Osuagwu In a country where thousands of brilliant technology ideas die quietly in classrooms and hostels for lack of support, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and its fintech subsidiary HabariPay may have stumbled on something far bigger than a student coding contest.
At the Squad Hackathon 3.0 finale, what emerged was not just another showcase of youthful brilliance, but a glimpse into a future generation of Nigerian innovators building homegrown technologies capable of tackling unemployment, financial exclusion, fraud and inefficient labour systems.
With over 1,600 applications from universities across the country, the hackathon became a national hunt for hidden digital talents young Nigerians quietly developing sophisticated artificial intelligence solutions that could reshape the country’s innovation ecosystem in the coming years.
The strongest signal came from Team Block X of Obafemi Awolowo University, whose AI-powered platform, “Guild,” earned them the overall victory after judges described the innovation as one of the competition’s most practical and scalable solutions.
