Nigerian Teen Wins Nomba Hackathon with AI Tool

Abdullah Ajala, a 17-year-old developer from Nigeria, won the Nomba x DevCareer Hackathon, surpassing over 1,000 participants to secure the top prize of $4,000. His winning product, PayWise, is an AI assistant integrated into WhatsApp, enabling small business owners to manage credit sales by tracking debts through voice notes in their preferred languages.

The hackathon, which ran from June 30 to July 7, featured a main build challenge where developers utilized Nomba’s API stack to create viable solutions for real customers. Jafer Shariff, vice-president of product at Nomba, emphasized the goal of delivering live products that could potentially become businesses for the developers.

Ajala's PayWise was awarded first place, while the second and third prizes went to Glasspot, a money-pooling platform, and Paye, a payment routing platform, respectively. The competition encouraged participants to continue developing their solutions beyond the event.