ISBAT University are kings of Centenary Bank cybersecurity hackathon

What the report says

Centenary Bank has wrapped up its first university cybersecurity hackathon in Kampala, with ISBAT University’s team, ISBAT1, named the overall winner. According to The Independent Uganda, the competition ran through October as part of the bank’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month activities and used the theme “Building a Secure Digital Future.” It was designed to help nurture student talent, build practical security skills and encourage responsible technology innovation.

The bank said 26 university teams entered the qualification round, with four advancing to the final. The finalists came from ISBAT University, Victoria University and Kyambogo University. Victoria University took second and third place, while Kyambogo finished fourth. An individual award also went to ISBAT University student Sseruwooza Uthman for his performance.

Centenary Bank said the exercise was meant to show students why security should be built into technology from the start, not added later. The bank also described cybersecurity as central to customer trust and said it has invested in technology and staff training. Its information security head said the hackathon helped identify promising young talent and could become an annual event.

The finalists worked on practical topics such as application security, vulnerability analysis, secure software development and incident response. More broadly, the initiative reflects a wider effort by financial institutions and universities to strengthen Uganda’s cybersecurity pipeline as digital services expand.