areeba announced the winners of its first national Digital Payment Hackathon.

In alignment with its mission of driving innovation into Lebanon’s e-payment sector, areeba announced today the three winners of its Digital Payment Hackathon which was held on March 14, 2020, under the theme “Finding solutions to enhance e-payments”.

The competition brought together young graduates from most of the Lebanese universities, to showcase their methodical thinking and compete to develop an innovative solution that would help in enhancing the digital payment experience in Lebanon. The Hackathon proved that more opportunities should be given to Lebanon’s talent, in order to nourish and encourage this generation to seek solutions for a country that needs them.

After shortlisting 3 candidates, areeba invited them to present their demos on May 22, 2020, at its headquarters, in front of a jury comprised of software engineering and e-payment experts, as well as a representative from Visa, Mr. Mario Makary, the company’s Country Manager for Lebanon and Iraq. The innovative solutions chosen highlighted the creative and analytical thinking, exhibited their feasibility and their great ability to scale across various markets.

Three winners were selected, Mahmoud Dafer, Ramy Merheb, and Hamza Jadid, based on their technical, communication and innovative skills, and respectively won $1,000, $750 and $500.

Mr. Ramzi Saboury, areeba’s Chief Commercial Officer, said “The Digital Payment Hackathon” had several pillars that guided the developers and coders in their creation. The projects had to be clear, impactful, innovative, sustainable, and functional, and the top three who won exhibited exactly that. This competition is the perfect way to stimulate the young minds of our country, especially in these difficult times we are going through, and to shed light on new ideas that would help empower a cashless world. We are proud to identify and encourage new Lebanese talent who could one day join our team of rising minds”.

Mr. Mario Makary, Country Manager for Lebanon and Iraq, Visa, said “I’m grateful to areeba for the opportunity to meet with some of our country’s young innovators and entrepreneurs and to hear their creative ideas to enhance digital payments. From improving user experience and delivering hyper-personalized customer experiences, to driving economic growth and reducing the informal economy, digital payments offer significant benefits for individuals, businesses and government. I look forward to more similar opportunities to provide the country’s youth with the right support to thrive and shape the course of digital payments in support of digital commerce in Lebanon”.