Infusion Tech has emerged as the second-place winner at the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council’s 2017 Hackathon after developing Halefens, an open-data platform designed to improve transparency in government revenue collection and transactions.

The startup secured the N300,000 second prize at the two-day #PEBECHack competition held in Lagos on June 24 and 25, 2017, where 15 teams competed to develop technology solutions aimed at improving accountability, transparency and ease of doing business in Nigeria.

According to a statement by the company, Halflens was built to address the lack of transparency surrounding government revenue processes, enabling citizens and businesses to better understand how public funds are generated and managed.

The statement said, “At the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Hackathon held June 24-25 in Lagos, Infusion Tech captured the second-place position with Halflens, an open data system engineered to track transactions and illuminate government revenue mobilization like never before.”

It added that the solution provides an open-data infrastructure capable of tracking transactions across government agencies in real time, making revenue processes visible and auditable, while empowering citizens and businesses with actionable intelligence.

The company noted that the platform also aligns with PEBEC’s broader objective of reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks and improving Nigeria’s business environment through technology-driven reforms.

Infusion Tech said its team, comprising founder Abiose Sodiq Olajide, user interface designer Mofe Oduntan, software developer Daniel Nkemelu, and product marketer Habeeb Kolade, developed the platform based on the belief that transparent and data-driven government revenue systems would significantly improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

According to the statement, the prize money and recognition would support the continued development of Halflens.

It stated, “Infusion Tech’s N300,000 prize and recognition positions them to develop Halflens further. In a country where transparency is the cornerstone of business confidence, this is a solution that could reshape how the government operates.”

The hackathon formed part of PEBEC’s efforts to institutionalise accountability and transparency across Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

A total of 60 young technology entrepreneurs, grouped into 15 teams, were shortlisted from nearly 300 applications to develop prototype solutions that would enable citizens to monitor, evaluate and submit feedback on services received from key government agencies as well as at airports, seaports and land borders.

Team Rhapsody emerged overall winner of the competition with an e-government citizen engagement application and received the grand prize of N1m, while ServiTrack finished third with a prize of N200,000.

Following the competition, PEBEC appointed indigenous venture development company L5 Lab as the preferred vendor to develop and deploy the winning prototype into a full-scale technology platform for citizen engagement and government service monitoring.

Speaking after the company’s selection, L5 Lab Chief Executive Officer, Chika Nwobi, said the company was committed to supporting PEBEC’s reform agenda.

“We are very pleased to work with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) in building this solution,” Nwobi said.

“We are convinced that a solution like this would help to drive the change that the government wants and L5 Lab is determined to play our role in helping the Council achieve its objective to make business work in Nigeria.”

PEBEC said the production version of the winning platform was scheduled to go live on October 1, 2017, with L5 Lab providing technical support and upgrades for an initial one-year period after deployment.