Visa, a global leader in digital payments, in collaboration with Microsoft, has concluded the Microsoft AI Skills Week Hackathon in Lagos, Nigeria.
In a statement, the organisers disclosed that the event, held from May 26 to 30, aimed to deepen practical AI capabilities within the financial services industry by fostering innovation and strengthening compliance frameworks.
Andrew Uaboi, Vice President and Cluster Head for Visa West Africa, emphasised the importance of such initiatives in nurturing the local fintech ecosystem.
“We are driven to support the next generation of fintech leaders in Nigeria and are proud to partner with Microsoft to catalyze technologies that are secure, inclusive, and built for scale,” Uaboi said. “By empowering local talent to harness generative AI and agentic systems, we aim to advance compliance innovation and reshape challenges in the financial services sector into competitive differentiators that reflect the unique needs of African markets.”
The initiative brought together more than 70 developers and over 150 senior technology leaders, including CIOs, CTOs, and heads of digital transformation from across the financial services sector. Participants engaged in self-paced learning, interactive workshops, live technical sessions, and a hands-on hackathon all focused on real-world fintech challenges.
Central to the hackathon was the task of developing AI-powered solutions to bolster Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, an increasingly critical area in today’s digital financial ecosystem.
Using Microsoft’s Agentic AI tools and Copilot, participants designed intelligent systems to streamline customer onboarding, enhance fraud detection, and automate compliance procedures. The projects were evaluated by a panel of fintech and AI experts, with winning teams receiving mentorship and potential support for scaling their solutions.
The program also featured training and insights from leading tech organizations including Visa, TeKnowledge, and GitHub. Developers explored cutting-edge technologies such as Azure OpenAI and Semantic Kernel to enhance their understanding of generative AI and its applications in fintech.
Ola Williams, Managing Director of Microsoft Nigeria and Ghana, highlighted the significance of investing in local talent to unlock transformative opportunities.
“The financial services industry in Nigeria stands as a beacon of innovation and a critical driver of economic growth. At Microsoft, we believe that nurturing upcoming talent is essential to sustaining this momentum and unlocking transformative possibilities for the sector,” Williams said.
“Together with Visa, we aim to empower Nigerian fintech professionals to lead with cutting-edge solutions that enhance compliance, elevate customer experiences, and drive financial inclusion.”
