Heirs Insurance Hackathon 2026 for Nigerian Students
Nigeria’s insurance sector has a reputation problem it’s been trying to shake for years — low penetration, clunky claims processes, and a persistent trust gap between insurers and the ordinary Nigerians who’d benefit most from proper coverage. The Heirs Insurance Hackathon was Heirs Insurance Group’s answer to that problem, and notably, its first attempt at solving it through a genuinely national student competition rather than an internal product team alone.
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Framed around the theme “The Future of Insurance: Streamlining Insurance with AI,” the maiden edition asked university students across Nigeria to build practical, AI-driven fixes for real friction points in the insurance value chain — claims processing, underwriting, customer experience, and more — and the response was substantial enough that Heirs described the entries as exceeding their expectations.
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If you’re checking this now, the window to enter has long since closed: applications shut on 16 February 2026, and the competition reached its Grand Finale at Heirs Towers in Lagos on 20 May 2026, where three teams walked away with a combined ₦9 million in prizes. This post walks through exactly how the hackathon worked, who won, and what to watch for if Heirs runs a second edition.
Heirs Insurance Hackathon Summary
| Scholarship Name ⇒ | Heirs Insurance Hackathon |
| Host Country ⇒ | Nigeria |
| Study Level ⇒ | Competitions |
| Benefits ⇒ | ₦9,000,000 total prize pool, shared among the top three teams |
| Funded by ⇒ | Heirs Insurance Group, in partnership with Redtech |
| Eligible Countries ⇒ | Nigeria |
| Application Deadline ⇒ | Closed 16 February 2026. The Grand Finale and winner announcements took place on 20 May 2026 — this edition is fully concluded. |
About the Heirs Insurance Hackathon
Heirs Insurance Group — the insurance arm of Heirs Holdings, a pan-African investment company with a footprint spanning 24 countries — built this hackathon in partnership with Redtech, Heirs Holdings’ digital payments and technology division, and the timing wasn’t incidental.
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The hackathon launched around the same period Heirs rolled out Prince AI, described as Nigeria’s first multi-language generative AI assistant built specifically for the insurance sector, meaning the company was actively investing in AI-driven insurance infrastructure on two fronts simultaneously: internally through Prince AI, and externally through this competition, tapping directly into Nigerian university talent for fresh thinking on the same category of problem. Heirs’ Chief Digital Officer described the results as exceeding the company’s expectations, calling out the technical depth and practical grounding of the solutions students presented — a signal that this wasn’t treated as a public-relations exercise but as a genuine scouting mechanism for ideas and, quite possibly, future hires. T
The competition’s reach was genuinely national too: the three podium finishers came from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in the South-East, Ahmadu Bello University in the North-West, and Lagos State University in the South-West, reflecting entries drawn from across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones rather than concentrated in Lagos alone.
How the Prize Pool Was Distributed
The final results, confirmed by Heirs Insurance Group in May 2026, played out as follows:
- Grand Prize — ₦5,000,000: awarded to Team Omnivoice from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, comprising Unah Chinweotuto, John Justice, and John Trust
- First Runner-up — ₦3,000,000: awarded to Team Alafia from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
- Second Runner-up — ₦1,000,000: awarded to Team Von Mises from Lagos State University
- Industry mentorship and direct exposure to Heirs and Redtech executives, extending beyond the cash prizes into genuine professional access — several senior Heirs Insurance leaders, including the Chief Digital Officer and the MD/CEO of Heirs Life Assurance, attended the Grand Finale directly
- A public platform in front of real industry stakeholders, positioning winning teams’ work in front of decision-makers who could realistically act on strong ideas, not just an academic judging panel
Worth noting for context: all three winning teams came from public universities outside Lagos, which is a useful data point if you’re weighing whether a hackathon like this genuinely rewards ideas over institutional prestige or geographic proximity to the host company.
Who Could Take Part
- Participants needed to be currently enrolled at a recognised Nigerian tertiary institution — a university, polytechnic, or college of education
- Entrants competed in teams, typically three members, drawn from the same institution
- Teams needed a genuine interest or background in technology, innovation, or business problem-solving — this wasn’t restricted to computer science students specifically, given the competition’s framing around business and operational challenges as much as pure technical execution
- Teams needed to collaborate on a solution addressing one or more of the hackathon’s core challenge areas within the insurance value chain
The winning teams’ composition is worth noting here too: Team Omnivoice’s three members — a useful reminder that a strong entry doesn’t require a large team or an unusually specialised background, just a well-scoped, technically credible solution built collaboratively.
What Applicants Needed to Submit
- Team details, including each member’s name, institution, and role within the team
- A structured project proposal, laying out the AI-driven solution being proposed, ideally addressing a clearly defined problem within claims processing, underwriting, customer experience, product distribution, or operational efficiency
- A completed submission using the official proposal template, downloaded from the Hackathon’s official portal, exported to PDF before submission
- Contact details, ensuring the organising team could reach the group throughout the judging process
Heirs’ own guidance encouraged teams to balance technical, design, and management skills across their group — a detail borne out by how the competition judged entries, weighing practical viability and business relevance alongside pure technical execution.
How the Competition Unfolded
- Teams visited the official Hackathon page on the Heirs Insurance Group website and registered.
- Each team, typically three members from the same institution, formed with a designated team lead.
- Teams downloaded the official proposal template from the portal.
- Teams developed their AI-driven solution around one of the hackathon’s key challenge areas within the insurance value chain.
- Completed proposals were exported to PDF and submitted through the Hackathon’s application platform ahead of the 16 February 2026 deadline.
- Submissions went through a rigorous judging process conducted by industry professionals from Heirs Insurance and Redtech.
- Shortlisted teams progressed toward the Grand Finale, held at Heirs Towers, Lagos, on 20 May 2026, where final winners were announced in person.
What to Watch For if a Second Edition Launches
Since this was explicitly described as the maiden edition, and Heirs’ leadership spoke of the results exceeding expectations, a follow-up competition is a reasonable possibility, though nothing has been confirmed yet. If you’re hoping to enter a future edition:
- Start thinking now about genuine friction points in the insurance industry, drawing on the same challenge areas this edition covered — claims processing, underwriting, customer experience, product distribution, and operational efficiency — since a second edition would likely retain a similar thematic scope.
- Build a team early, balancing technical, design, and business skills, rather than assembling a group of similarly skilled teammates close to any future deadline.
- Study what made the winning entries succeed: Team Omnivoice’s win, and the broader panel of finalists from across Nigeria’s regions, suggests judges valued technically credible, practically grounded ideas over flashier but less implementable concepts.
- Follow Heirs Insurance Group and Redtech’s official channels directly, since any future edition would likely be announced there first, well before it reaches wider scholarship or opportunity roundups.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still apply for the 2026 Heirs Insurance Hackathon?
No. The application window closed 16 February 2026, and the entire competition, including the Grand Finale and winner announcements, concluded on 20 May 2026.
Who won the 2026 competition?
Team Omnivoice from Nnamdi Azikiwe University won the ₦5 million Grand Prize. Team Alafia from Ahmadu Bello University placed second (₦3 million), and Team Von Mises from Lagos State University placed third (₦1 million).
Was this hackathon open to students outside Lagos?
Yes, genuinely so — the three winning teams came from universities in the South-East, North-West, and South-West of Nigeria, reflecting a nationally distributed field of entries rather than a Lagos-centric competition.
Will there be a second Heirs Insurance Hackathon?
Nothing has been officially confirmed, but this was explicitly described as the maiden edition, and Heirs’ leadership publicly described the results as exceeding expectations — both signals that a follow-up competition is plausible. Watch Heirs Insurance Group’s official channels for any announcement.
Do I need to be a computer science student to enter?
No. Eligibility required a genuine interest or background in technology, innovation, or business problem-solving, and Heirs specifically encouraged teams to balance technical, design, and management skills rather than assembling an all-technical team.
Disclaimer: All competition details, results, and figures in this post were verified from official and reported sources as of July 2026. Information is subject to change without notice. Always confirm the latest details directly on the official Heirs Insurance Group website before relying on any specific competition information. ScholarWaka is not affiliated with Heirs Insurance Group or Redtech.
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