Eleven Nigerian teams shared ₦300 million in awards from Wema Bank at the grand finale of Hackaholics 7.0, the bank’s innovation competition, held in Lagos on 6 November 2026. The winners work across agriculture, healthcare, artificial intelligence, education and accessibility.
The largest award, a ₦60 million grand prize, went to Tony Niteon Nwose’s Niteon. TechBuild.Africa describes it as an agritech platform connecting African farmers with processors, financial services and international markets.
The other awards, as reported, were:
- ₦40 million each to Acceede, an education-focused solution, and Craft Planet, which converts plastic waste into building materials.
- ₦30 million each to SocialSign, a sign-language technology for communication and digital accessibility, and Neural Forge, an AI-powered medical diagnostic solution.
- ₦20 million each to Harthio, a mental wellness solution, MamaAlert, a digital healthcare service focused on women’s access to timely care, All-Arbitrates, a digital arbitration and dispute-resolution platform, and Nexa AI, a technology that helps businesses understand customer interactions.
- ₦10 million each to Vhorde for IRIS, AI-powered smart glasses for visually impaired people, and URI, an AI-powered marketing platform.
The 11 amounts add up to ₦300 million. Vanguard reports that the awards were made across four categories: Startup/Ideathon, Social Impact, Women-Led and Hackathon. TechBuild and Vanguard report that the competition drew 5,329 participants and 1,632 ideas across seven pitch centres, and that 21 finalists reached the grand finale.
What the money is
The sources do not describe the money the same way. TechBuild and Vanguard call it funding. Business Post calls it grants. Guardian says the bank awarded up to ₦300 million in “prizes, funding and ecosystem support”. Okay News, citing a release supplied to its newsroom, lists the individual amounts and says the announcement does not establish when the money will be paid. None of the coverage we read describes equity in exchange for the awards.
Context for the bank’s programme
Wema Bank says Hackaholics was launched in 2019. Its own site and the coverage cite more than 21,000 applicants, more than 50,000 participants and more than 10,000 startups supported across three countries. The bank’s site also says “$500M in funds disbursed” over seven years. We did not find a breakdown of that cumulative figure.
TechBuild makes the central point: a competition generates attention, but the harder work comes after the pitch, when a product has to work at scale, win paying customers and sustain a business.
What we could not confirm
We did not find a primary press release from Wema Bank on its own site. The figures rest on the coverage listed above and on a release that Okay News says it received. One report, Business Post, gives the finale date as 7 November; TechBuild, Vanguard and Okay News give 6 November, and we use 6 November. We did not verify the companies behind SocialSign, Neural Forge or Nexa AI, so those winners are named without profile links.
Sources
- TechBuild.Africa, Wema Bank Awards ₦300M to 11 Nigerian Startups at Hackaholics 7.0
- Vanguard, Wema Bank awards N300m to 11 innovators at Hackaholics 7.0
- Guardian Nigeria, Wema awards N300 million to winners of Hackaholics 7.0
- Business Post, Niteon, Acceede, MamaAlert, Eight Others Secure N300m Grant from Wema Bank
- Okay News, Wema Announces ₦300m Awards for 11 Hackaholics Winners
- Hackaholics 7.0 official site
TopicsHackaholics Wema Bank Nigeria
