Nigerian Startup, NearPays, Wins Inaugural Gitex Africa Fintech and Blockchain Award in Morocco

Nigerian blockchain startup, NearPays, emerged as the winner in the Fintech and Blockchain category of the Supernova Challenge during GITEX Africa held in Marrakech, Morocco.

NearPays, a comprehensive financial payment platform that provides end-to-end financial services to its clients, successfully outperformed strong competitors and claimed the $10,000 prize.

The Gitex Africa Supernova Challenge stands as one of the largest pitch competitions in Africa, offering a substantial cash prize of $100,000 across various other categories including:

• Cybersecurity
• AI and Digital Cities
• Health Tech, and
• Sustainability and Agritech

Founder, Victor Daniyan, said the prize will go a long way to helping NearPays get its payment card system licence which costs around $15 000.

NearPays streamlines online payments by prioritizing seamless transactions. The startup has devised a method to empower users with control over point-of-sale transactions where the user experience is effortless, accessible on the go, and devoid of any additional bank fees for all its users.


The inaugural edition of Gitex Africa brought together startup founders, investors, telecoms, and IT companies from Africa and around the world in Morocco. The event served as a platform to shape and advance the future of technology in Africa.

The organizers of the event welcomed over 900 prominent tech companies, government entities, startups, and participants from over 100 countries. The event took place in a specially designed super venue located at Place Bab Jdid, Bd Al Yarmouk, in the captivating city of Marrakech. The venue spanned across ten halls and covered an expansive exhibition space of 45,000 square meters.

“Of course, I’m still young, and I need mentors who have come before me, as well as give us publicity so more people get to know about our product in Abuja because most of the startups that are thriving are coming from Lagos, but it’s an opportunity for people to see that Abuja is also thriving in the startup space in Nigeria as well, coming up with the best products and new technologies coming out from Nigeria and not coming from abroad. This will inspire more startups and show them an opportunity for startups in Abuja”

– Victor Daniyan

The shortlist of the startup pitch competition was selected from more than 300 applications, representing nations from across the globe, including:

• Cameroon
• Cyprus
• Egypt
• France
• Gambia
• Ghana
• India
• Israel
• Kenya
• Korea
• Kuwait
• Morocco
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Tunisia
• Uganda
• UK
• USA, and
• Zambia

The participants completed for $100,000 in cash prizes with 70 disruptive startups from 31 countries battling it out for supremacy across two days of live pitches in front of a 13-judging panel of global VCs, angel investors, and accelerators.

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