Team HealthWaka has emerged overall winner of the Eko Innovation Centre SecureHack 1.0 competition.
According to the firm, the hackathon which was launched in February 2023 had over 400 registrations from participants to form 100+ teams from 62 locations in four countries and across two continents.
The firm stated that Team Nexa comprising Peter Adesina, Idris Tijani, Robinson Uche, and Muhammed Musa came third in the competition and won ₦350,000; Team Cyber Verse comprising Osonuga Steven and Akorede Rasaq came second to win the sum of ₦650,000; and Team HealthWaka comprising the trio of Omolola Oluwadara, Kehinde Abolaji, and Ozemhoya Anthonia, won the hackathon and one million Naira an acceleration programme investment of up to $50k equity investment to get their products ready for the market among other benefits.
The Chief Juror of the Hackathon and Group Head, Emerging Businesses, Africa Bank Plc., Ayodele Olojede, said:
“The underlining factor we looked at among other criteria was that of civic good.
So, you are able to come up with a solution you can make money with, and at the same time, you are solving a challenge that could benefit society. We looked at how great the contestants’ ideas were and also checked if there is a team that can progress this, we looked at the quality of the delivery, how they responded to questions, and also looked at their business models.”
In a statement, the Founder of Eko Innovation Centre and Curator of SecureHack 1.0, Victor Afolabi, emphasised the importance of cybersecurity and the need for innovation in addressing security threats.
“Security threat is much more than an IT topic and we are doing our bit at the Eko Innovation Centre to drive the growth of this ecosystem.”
The keynote speaker, Head, IT GRC & DPO, Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited, Oluwasolape Akinde, highlighted the challenges facing cybersecurity in Africa’s emerging digital economy and the need for best practices to strengthen cybersecurity, collaborations, and partnerships.
