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A designer turned builder on winning with two people.

Six minutes at PRODFEST in Jos, caught just after the hackathon results, with one of the winners still holding what he built. The subject is Ameer, and the conversation runs from how he learned the work to what his product does.

He starts with the result and immediately shares it out. “my team won the 3rd position in the recent hackathon”, he says, and points out the odd shape of it: teams around them had four or five people, his had two, and while “most of the team came with their teammates, but I and my teammates met at the hackathon.”

The route to the work is a career change. “sometimes that’s why they say nothing goes to waste”, he says, and explains that “I was a UI/UX designer” for about six months after someone in Abuja taught him, though he never took to the tooling. “I’m more of an Illustrator guy though”, he says. “I prefer vector drawing.” Then he moved on, because “the UI/UX industry is somehow saturated and I wanted to explore something that’s more difficult for people to learn”, and started learning blockchain off free university resources online. He is modest about the win to the point of disowning it: “we put in work, but it’s more like a miracle that we won this”, which the interviewer refuses to accept.

He credits the tone of the event for the rest. “The experience was so inspiring”, he says, because the founder opened by telling the room “we should not be intimidated” by the senior developers in it, and that “we just give our best and we should ensure that we build something that works and something that solves a problem.”

The product is a payments bridge. “it’s called ZamPay”, built around “the challenge most Nigerians are facing”, which is transaction limits: “using traditional bank, there’s limits to what you spend.” His case is a seller who wants nothing to do with crypto and a buyer who is fluent in it. The buyer pays in crypto, and on the other end, “We abstract the crypto part for him and he gets his naira.” It is not public, since “it was something that we created in 3 days”, and he admits they never got to test it.

It was the first hackathon he and his teammate had ever entered, and he says it “has given me motivation and hope that, yeah, we can be anything.” His message to viewers is to stay consistent. Then the interviewer makes him spell a word at the camera, and he ends the tape shouting it.

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Transcript

Transcribed and speaker-separated with AssemblyAI from the original audio, so nothing is masked. The letters are the model's speaker labels, not names; fillers are dropped by the model. Names corrected. Published in full so it can be read, searched and quoted. Search every transcript →

0:00ASo can you show the guys? Let’s see. So can you tell them what you won?

0:03BActually, my team won the 3rd position in the recent hackathon which was organized by the Podfest. And unfortunately, my teammates, because this is a win for me and my teammates, we are 2, you know, because this is a hackathon that has that’s based on team. Some team has like 4 members, I think theirs was 5 members, but luckily we were only 2. And surprisingly, most of the team came with their teammates, but, but I and my teammates met at the hackathon.

0:47ANice. Well, I, I was told that they made sure that every team had a marketer and a -- is it marketer and designer? Because they’re trying to Encourage, uh, technical builders into the space as well. Yeah, this is why Purpose was formed too. So like, how exactly did that work?

1:06BActually, actually, the way it works, you know, you know, sometimes that’s why they say nothing goes to waste. I would say before, I was, I was a UI/UX designer. Oh, I mean, I think about 2 years back, uh, thanks to one of the great, uh, creators in UI/UX, I will give a credit to him. I think his name is Logic. He’s in Abuja. So, um, he taught me UI/UX. I think I did UI/UX for almost 6 months or so, but then I just later on I felt I use Figma.

1:38AOh, it was easy. So, so I’m more of an Illustrator guy though.

1:42BWow, wow, wow.

1:43AI prefer vector drawing.

1:44BThat’s really amazing. So, so I took -- so after a while I just felt like the UI/UX, uh, industry is somehow saturated and I wanted to explore something that’s more difficult for people to learn. So I started, uh, learning blockchain using, I think, Alkemi University resources. So basically it was just more like, um, we put in work, but it’s more like a miracle that we won this.

2:09AIt’s not a miracle, trust me. This is why having extensive knowledge, it goes a long way. So you can see, I like that. I now have an understanding of what’s going on. You are a technical and non-technical programmer.

2:20BYeah, yeah, yeah.

2:20ABut congrats again on winning. And then for you, like, how was the experience of the whole hackathon?

2:26BLike, how was the experience for you? The experience was so inspiring because, like what the founder said, Mr. Longs, the first -- I think the first word I heard was he said that we should not be intimidated because he knows that some of us here, this is our first time at the hackathon and there are some senior developers here. So we shouldn’t feel intimidated by these senior developers and we just give our best and we should ensure that we build something that works and something that solves a problem. I think that was what we leveraged on, me and my teammates.

3:01AAnd what’s like, what’s the product like?

3:02BUm, the product is, uh, is, it’s called ZamPay. So actually it was, it was brought up by me and my teammate because of, I think, the challenges we have, which was, which is most of the challenge, which is most basically the challenge most Nigerians are facing. which is transaction limits.

3:21AYeah.

3:21BUsing this, you know, me and you know that using traditional bank, um, there’s limits to what you spend. And then, and then sometimes you have some people that want to deal with crypto and people that don’t want to deal with crypto. So our product is more like, okay, there’s a business or person that actually wants to like sell these products but doesn’t want to deal with crypto. And then the person that wants to buy, that’s the buyer, is crypto savvy. So, and then, you know, the stress of like converting, uh, maybe ETH to naira, or maybe -- yeah, he can -- the, the, the buyer can just make payments using crypto, using the ZamPay. But at the end of the seller, that’s the business owner, he doesn’t, he doesn’t get the money as received as a crypto. We abstract the, the crypto part for him and he gets his naira.

4:21AWhat do you call it again?

4:22BName of the Zamfi.

4:23AZamfi. Wow, check it out. That’s amazing. Is it open?

4:27BIt’s not actually open. You know, it was something that we created in 3 days.

4:31AOkay, well, I wish for the best.

4:33BNo problem.

4:34AAmazing.

4:34BBut yeah, actually, you know, actually, we -- the products, we actually did the product minutes.

4:38AOh, minutes?

4:40BDuring the hackathon, we didn’t do is test it.

4:44AWe just -- I would like to see how that works. But with that being said, Yeah. What’s the feedback you’re getting now from all this?

4:50BLike, I think, I think this is a great motivation for me and my teammates because I wish she was here. Because as we were talking, this was our first hackathon we’ve ever attended. We have no experience, but this has given me motivation and hope that, yeah, we can be anything.

5:09ASo what’s your message to the viewers now?

5:12BWhat I can Say to the viewers that you should stay consistent, keep building and keep learning, and hopefully your consistency will pay one day.

5:25AAmazing. Now I want to do something here. Yeah. We’re going to spell buya.

5:29BBuya.

5:30ABuya. Look at camera and like spell it.

5:33BBuya.

5:34ASpell it. Spell it. Spell buya.

5:36BBuya.

5:37AYeah. Buya.

5:38BBuilder or buya. Buya.

5:41AYeah.

5:42BB O O Y A. Am I right?

5:50AYou know when you hear it loud.

5:54BAll right, my name is Amir Abdulalim. The the third position for the Podfest Hackathon, which product is Zampe, and we are live. With, uh, Weeden Media. Booyah!

6:10ABooyah!

6:11BAll right.

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