Guaranty Trust Holding Company has opened applications for the third edition of its “Take on Squad” Hackathon, bringing together developers, designers, and entrepreneurs across Nigeria to build technology-driven solutions in financial services, healthcare, commerce, and digital inclusion. The initiative is run through HabariPay, GTCO’s fintech subsidiary, and is themed “Smart Systems: The Intelligent Economy.”
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What the hackathon is about
Participants are challenged to design intelligent, data-driven solutions that transform how communities and businesses interact with money. Competing teams will use Squad’s advanced APIs to build scalable digital tools designed to solve everyday challenges faced by individuals and businesses across Nigeria.
The hackathon has grown into a flagship initiative for HabariPay, which serves SMEs, micro merchants, large corporations, and fintech startups through its payments ecosystem. Squad’s product suite includes POS terminals, payment links, virtual accounts, USSD services, and e-commerce storefront solutions — tools that thousands of Nigerian merchants rely on daily.
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Why this is relevant for SMEs
Technology-led innovation in payments and financial services has a direct bearing on how small businesses operate. For Nigerian SMEs, better payment infrastructure means faster settlements, lower transaction costs, and access to transaction histories that can support credit applications.
Hackathons like this are one of the more practical ways financial institutions invest in the kind of talent and tooling that eventually makes its way into the products small businesses rely on to manage cash, process payments, and access finance.
HabariPay Managing Director Eduophon Japhet noted that the programme is designed not just to encourage ideas, but to translate them into scalable solutions with measurable impact, reflecting GTCO’s broader vision of connecting capital, capability, and creativity.
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The bigger opportunity
Nigeria’s digital economy is expanding rapidly, and initiatives that build homegrown solutions using local payment infrastructure are increasingly important. Rather than importing technology, programmes like this invest in Nigerian developers whose solutions are built for the realities of the local market.
Applications are currently open via the official hackathon portal at squadco.com/hackathon.
