Hackaholics: Ushering in Next Generation of Innovators, Transforming Startup Industry

Wema Bank has proven itself fully committed to the goal of empowering innovators, transform startup industry, writes Oluchi Chibuzor

In the past, technology and innovation seemed more or less a luxury. The Faradays and Graham Bells whose names remain etched in history for their respective innovations, stood out for their ability to think, experiment and create new solutions that would change the world forever. Was no one else innovating? Of course they were. But at such a time, access to technology, data and other resources needed to bring meaningful innovations to life, was not what it is. Hence, innovators were somewhat the top 1 per cent. Today, innovation has transformed.

With the advent of the internet, digital technology and artificial intelligence, many of the challenges that hindered creative thinkers from becoming true innovators have been overcome. A simple google search could provide in-depth insights across almost any field. One could sit at home, on their phone, research and identify an untouched area of life to transform through innovation. Slowly, innovation is moving from being a luxury reserved for the few; it is the future.

While the times have bridged a majority of the gaps that prevented innovation from thriving in the past, there remain some gaps that pose a challenge even till this day. Perhaps the most prevalent of these is access to resources. It is one thing to research and come up with an idea on how to solve a critical problem, and another thing to have access to the resources needed to bring that idea to life. Everything costs money, and even where money can give you access to technology, some equipment and technicalities require expert guidance. So how can we leverage the opportunities available to us in present day while bridging the gaps that pose a threat to the future of innovation? The answer is simple: Empower Innovators. The more intentional the rest of the world is in empowering innovators with the resources they need to make headway, the more innovation will thrive. Interestingly, one institution that has proven itself fully committed to this goal of empowering innovators, is a financial institution: Wema Bank.

Being an 80-year old bank that started its journey in 1945, Wema Bank is one of the few banks in Nigeria today to have experienced the early years of innovation. Innovation brought ATMs, debit cards, and digital technology that significantly decluttered banking halls and automated processes to accelerate productivity. Experiencing firsthand the great opportunities in innovation, Wema Bank, in 2015, took up a mission: Empowering Lives Through Innovation. For the Bank, this clearly wasn’t just a mission on paper. It is a mission the Bank has stayed firmly glued to.

Between 2017 till date, Wema Bank has launched several industry firsts including Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT; the ALAT Xplore App, Nigeria’s first licensed banking app for teenagers; CoopHub, a first-of-its-kind digital solution for cooperatives, and even became the first in Nigeria to facilitate Western Union transactions outside of banking halls. But here is where it gets interesting. Wema Bank hasn’t just been innovating; it has also been empowering innovators. The Bank not only powers over 150 Fintechs in the industry today, it has gone a step ahead through Hackaholics to usher in the future of innovation in Africa, one where even an undergraduate can launch a working innovative solution and own a startup.

Wema Bank in 2019, launched Hackaholics with a simple goal; providing a platform for those with creative ideas and critical thinking skills to transform their ideas into practical solutions. The concept was simple: Pitch your ideas, and Wema Bank not only connects you with experts whose guidance can refine that idea for today’s world, but also provides you with one crucial thing that could take you from student to startup owner; funding.

Since 2019, Hackaholics has grown to become Nigeria’s largest campus-based ideathon/hackathon. Let’s take a closer look into what Wema Bank has done with Hackaholics.

HOW DOES HACKAHOLICS WORK?

The standard principle is this:

1. Tour Universities across Nigeria calling on youth with great ideas.

2. Give these innovators the opportunity to pitch their solution, and provide useful feedback to help them refine it.

3. Narrow down entries to the top finalists.

4. Connect these finalists with top experts for deeper insights and practical guidance.

5. Award the top innovators with funding to develop their solutions and scale.

WHY HACKAHOLICS STANDS OUT

Throughout the journey of Hackaholics, Wema Bank has been intentional in putting measures in place to ensure that Hackaholics makes meaningful impact as innovation continues to thrive.

What makes Hackaholics stand out?

1. Promoting the SDGs: Hackaholics has remained intentional in facilitating the innovation of solutions that solve problems tied to the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]. Some editions have introduced verticals like Health, Education, Climate Change, Gender Equality, Finance, CivicTech, Entertainment, and many others. This has led to the creation of numerous solutions that have led breakthroughs in key areas of life.

2. Introducing the “Women-Led” category: In recognition of the gender gap that exists in the technology and innovation space, Hackaholics introduced a “Women-Led” category, to reward innovations created by women, motivating more women to participate.

3. Investing in the future by focusing on Youth:

By making Hackaholics largely campus-based, Wema Bank is not just giving undergraduates a chance to become innovators and tap into the booming startup market. It is building a generation where innovation knows no bounds, problem solving is a norm and technology is leveraged for the benefit of the people. Essentially, Wema Bank is investing in the future, and the returns? A better future for everyone.

4. Inclusion beyond Tech Graduates:

By adopting a “team-based” approach, Hackaholics has decentralised innovation, giving young Nigerians from all fields a chance to innovate. Tochukwu Ifeanyi, the winner of the Women-Led category in Hackaholics 4.0, recounted how Hackaholics changed her life, expressing her gratitude that a Business Administration student like her was given a chance to put together her innovative idea and business knowledge, with the expertise of team members in the technology space, to create Outsidee, a platform that has revolutionised the entertainment space. With Tochukwu’s success, more Nigerian youth have come to understand the importance of collaboration and combining strengths to build meaningful solutions.

5. Growing the Startup Industry:

The startup industry is an engine for job creation and economic growth, and the potential is enormous. By empowering  innovators from as early as undergraduate years, Hackaholics is helping the youth build streams of income even before they get into the labour market, creating more economically active youth.

6. Building resilient founders:

Hackaholics has over the years, forged resilience among Nigerian intending and established founders. Beyond the winners, there exists a pool of innovators with promising solutions who have implemented the feedback gotten in their pitch sessions and refined their pitch to come back stronger. Solutions like University X, Chao, and Eutopia.ai are examples of innovations by founders who have tried Hackaholics more than once. University X and Chao both emerged finalists at Hackaholics 4.0 but didn’t emerge winners. Rather than give up, they both returned to retry; University X in Hackaholics 5.0. and Chao, in this year’s edition, 6.0. After two learning curves, University X emerged 3rd runner-up on his third try while Chao is one of the top 35 finalists in Hackaholics 6.0. In truth, Hackaholics does mimic reality. Having a great idea is one thing, being able to sell it is what makes the difference and Hackaholics is essentially the perfect environment to not only refine solutions but also pitching skills.

HACKAHOLICS JOURNEY IN NUMBERS

Numbers don’t lie and in the case of Hackaholics, they show the reach and impact of this initiative:

– 12,000 people have applied, showing the growing number of Nigerian youth who have become interested in innovation and problem solving.

– 15 schools visited across the six geopolitical zones, showing how inclusive Hackaholics has been in, ensuring youth across all parts of Nigeria get an opportunity to make their big break.

– Over $300,000 disbursed in funding, showing the vast financial investment made by Wema Bank in the potential of Nigerian youth and innovators.

– N75 million disbursed to women-led teams in 2023 and 2024 alone, demonstrating the Bank’s commitment to promoting women inclusion in tech and innovation spaces.

HACKAHOLICS 6.0.

6 years after its launch, Wema Bank announced the start of Hackaholics 6.0, the sixth edition of Hackaholics. Themed “Beyond Algorithms”, this edition took into cognisance the growing conversations around emerging and trendy technologies, challenging innovators to engineer disruptive solutions beyond algorithms and buzzwords. The edition introduced a two-pronged approach to empowering both the builders of new solutions and the improvers of existing solutions, in a Hackathon-Ideathon double-sided competition that has broadened the scope of innovation.

Since its kickoff in March 2025, Hackaholics 6.0 has toured several universities in 8 cities across Nigeria, providing students with access to industry-led masterclasses, hands-on mentorship and structured pitch development sessions which faced the ultimate test; highly competitive presentations before expert judges. From a pool of 1,460 participants, 35 finalists have emerged, comprising 17 Ideathon teams, 12 Hackathon teams and six women-led teams, each tackling challenges across fraud detection, customer experience, onboarding, acquisition, credit management and other social impact areas. All of this will culminate in the Hackaholics 6.0 two-phase finale where the top 35 will be shortlisted to the Top 10 ahead of the grand finale which holds in Lagos on December 19, 2025.

In the end, what we have is another edition of Hackaholics that has engineered further breakthroughs in the innovation space, promoted the achievement of the SDGs, and put African innovators in the global map as emerging technologies continue to redefine life as we know it.

Transforming Start Ups

Hackaholics is a prime example of an initiative engineered to usher in the next generation of innovators and transform the startup industry for the best. From a small hackathon in 2019 that challenged creative innovators to build unique solutions, to this year’s two-pronged ideathon-hackathon that empowers both builders and developers of new and existing innovations; Hackaholics continues to inspire Nigerian youth to put their creativity to good use and become innovators even before graduation. From inception to the last edition, Hackaholics 5.0, Hackaholics has has discovered over 3,500 unique ideas from youth across all parts of Nigeria. The more these youth focus their creativity on building useful solutions that can produce sustainable streams of income, the more innovation thrives and the economy grows; and the higher the chances of reduced fraud and illegal activity.

Hackaholics ticks all the boxes: empowering innovators with all they need, channeling the creativity of youth into productive innovation, and leveraging innovation to drive economic growth in Africa.  Sophia Sodiq, the founder of MyTherapist, a mental health tech platform who won in the women-led category of Hackaholics 5.0 put it aptly in her speech at the launch of Hackaholics 6.0. “Building in Nigeria is hard and sometimes what you need goes beyond finances. Sometimes it’s understanding markets from the insights of those who have been there before you, learning how to pitch to potential clients and investors or being connected with other founders whose solutions complement yours. Wema Bank has hacked it, identifying the needs of innovators in Africa and putting all the solutions into one initiative—Hackaholics, thereby providing 360 support for young innovators like me.”

Sophia, now a part of the Hackaholics Accelerator and Collective Programme which the Bank launched earlier this year to provide ongoing support to Hackaholics winners beyond the competition cycle, is just one of many who have been empowered to become true innovators of working solutions in a world where innovation is the future.  Clearly, innovation is no longer an option. It is a need that intentional institutions like Wema Bank have identified, and remain committed to facilitating as today’s youth become tomorrow’s founders and their ventures evolve from startups to business empires.