Four Paths, One Pitch: How Team UNILAG Won Zenith Bank Hackathon

By Jacinta Emeka, Success Essien, Ajibola Oyindamola Odunayo and Olanipekun Ayooluwa Ruth 

When Faisal Adams and his teammates eventually walked away as winners of the Zenith Bank Hackathon, it was hard to believe how close they had come to not participating at all.

“We were not even supposed to be there,” Faisal said.

 “It was something we almost missed.”

That hesitation makes the story of Faisal Adams and Ugochukwu Ndujekwu (both 500-level) and Samuel Emeka (400-level), all students of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and Alfred Emmanuel (400-level Marine Science), even more compelling. Against the odds, the four-man team emerged winners from a pool of 20 teams, advancing through intense pitching rounds before clinching the final prize at one of Nigeria’s largest technology events.

Their journey to victory was shaped by different paths and shared lessons. Faisal and Samuel had worked together on earlier projects, while Peter and Emmanuel joined through overlapping hackathons and developer networks. A previous competition had ended in disappointment, not because their product was weak, but because their pitch was not convincing enough.

“That loss taught us something important,” Samuel explained. “Building a solution is not enough. You must be able to communicate it clearly.”

That lesson proved crucial at the Zenith Bank Hackathon, where teams were randomly assigned real industry problems to solve. The challenge handed to them focused on one of the banking sector’s most persistent frustrations: slow and inefficient address verification for Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

To upgrade bank accounts and remove transaction limits, customers often endure weeks of physical address verification. The team’s solution, TrustLoop, reimagined that process entirely. By combining artificial intelligence with device-based verification, TrustLoop enables customers to confirm their addresses remotely within minutes.

“Your phone becomes the verification tool,” Faisal said. “It removes the need for physical visits.”

Building TrustLoop was anything but smooth. The team worked under tight timelines, initially developing a prototype within days before refining it over the course of about a month. Midway through the process, they realised their first approach did not meet regulatory standards and had to rebuild the system almost from scratch.

“We had to start again, it was frustrating but necessary,” Peter recalled.

Their persistence paid off. At the grand finale, held before thousands of attendees and industry leaders, the team pitched live on stage. Their preparation showed. They had rehearsed so thoroughly that the presentation felt effortless, even under pressure.

By the end of the event, TrustLoop had not only impressed the judges but also attracted interest from key industry players. The team has since entered an incubation programme to further develop the product and prepare it for market launch.

For Emmanuel Alfred and the entire team, the win is only the beginning.

“This is bigger than a hackathon,” he said.

 “It is something that can change how verification works in Nigeria.”

What started as an opportunity they nearly passed up has become a product with real-world relevance, powered by four developers whose shared teamwork, preparation, and willingness to start over turned hesitation into success.