On the 12th of November, 2022, Verified.africa sponsored ‘Ingressive For Good’s Annual Hackfest event. This year’s theme was; No Techies Left Behind.
At Verified.africa, we enable businesses to confirm their customers’ identities, eliminating e-fraud and identity theft.
We also believe that every individual has a right to access equal opportunities regardless of background.
This is why we partnered with Ingressive for Good – a leading ed-tech non-profit that provides training and support for one million African youths in tech.
This partnership allowed us to share our API with talented developers who built innovative solutions contributing to the African identity verification ecosystem.
We equally obtained critical feedback from the developers on working with Verified.africa’s API.
“It’s essential for us as a KYC startup to help businesses and individuals operate safely in today’s digital world and provide the right tools and resources for the ecosystem to thrive.
Ingressive Hackfest 2022 is one of Africa’s biggest platforms in tech, and seeing our APIs at the centre of it all is beyond impressive for us ” – Kosi Ofodile, Product Marketing Manager, Verified.africa.
Background
The goal for the I4GHACKFEST 2022 was to allow young developers to collaborate and build an MVP for a verification product using Verified.africa’s API.
Each team’s work was measured by the product’s uniqueness, novelty and viability for businesses to use seamlessly.
The Issue
When historical transactions or an account owner’s identity is to be made known, brands and businesses in the payment space cannot retrieve such information, resulting in delayed transactions, waste of time and loss of revenue.
What the Ingressive Hackfest 2022 Participants Built:
At the Hackathon, the participants’ products were presented to a panel of judges to determine the finalists. Here are some of the solutions that they built:
- An Investment app that enables investors to verify the status of Nigerian startups. The app is also a repository for startups that seek investor funding.
- An alcohol catalogue website that limits access to alcohol to those under the legal drinking age through identity verification. It also enables users to purchase alcohol on the catalogue.
- A passport app that offers passport issuance and renewal services to Nigerians, ensuring that they are eligible to own a Nigerian passport.
- An identity verification app enables businesses to reduce the identity fraud they face when onboarding their customers.
- A verification app that authenticates the identity of a company’s staff, using Face ID, before they are granted access to sensitive data or information.
- A verification platform that flags the identities of users with a track record of questionable activities, e.g. borrowing money without repayment and other fraudulent activities.
Meet The Ingressive Hackfest 2022 Winners!
Of the 17 talented teams, 3 emerged as winners of the Hackathon!
The judging process was somewhat challenging, seeing that the teams worked hard to build these products with their prototypes in ample time for their presentation.
“As a technical judge at the hackathon, it was fascinating to see how our APIs could be used to build multiple products almost overnight. The developers were amazing, and I’m glad they had the opportunity to display their talent” – Joachim Odo, Technical lead, Verified.africa.
Team Meraki emerged as the overall winner of the Hackathon after a job well done in building a solution that enables investors to verify the identities of startups.
This would prevent fraudulent individuals posing as startups from stealing money from potential investors. The app would allow startups to seek investor funding and share their business information on a secured platform.
Team Meraki’s members are:
- Loveth Akodu
- Chigozie Udoh
- Tobechukwu Okamkpa
- Ajibade Abdulbasit
“We can collectively say it was a wonderful experience as a team. Working seamlessly and achieving much within a short period, some would have mistaken us for long-time friends. It was also a nice experience familiarising ourselves with the Verified.africa API”. – Team Meraki.
Team One Secure came in second place.
They built One Secure; a verification app that flags the identities of fraudulent individuals, especially those previously identified as such by other platforms due to their disputable actions.
The team member for One Secure are:
- Damilare Ololade
- Salawudeen Quadri
- Jamiu Tijani
“Working on this project made us realise that our product is valid, and we’ve decided to continue working on the project even after the hackathon.” Team One Secure.
Team Optimus came in third position in the Hackathon.
They built Internet ID, a solution that secures the resources of businesses, preventing the exposure of their information to hackers, cybercriminals and bots on the Internet.
Team Optimus’ members are:
- Gideon Balogun
- Saheed Babatunde
- Bertin Fonge
“Verified.africa helped bring our amazing solution (Internet ID) to life. Our success story is getting to work with such a talented, diverse team within three days, and our ability to implement such an amazing solution wouldn’t be complete without Verified.africa.” – Team Optimus.
The Ingressive for Good Hackathon was a memorable learning experience for us and an opportunity for the participants to connect with more people in the tech space, work with each other and discover innovative ways to use Verified.africa’s API.
Our team members were present at the booths to speak with curious minds and support the participants.
“It was a great experience and opportunity to meet and connect with talented people at the hackathon.
I can confidently say that the ID tech space is filled with many young Africans willing to create innovative solutions relevant to Africa’s unique challenges.” – Chilotam Ojukwu, Content Marketer, Verified.africa.
We appreciate all the participants, the Ingressive for Good Team, the judges, speakers, mentors, community members and everyone else who contributed to the success of the Hackathon.
We anticipate more opportunities to empower African techies to build viable solutions that solve problems in the ID verification space, which could be breakthroughs in the tech ecosystem.
