Emirates NBD, a prominent banking Group in the area, today revealed the winners of the 2016 GEMS Citizens of Tomorrow Innovation Competition, an initiative undertaken as part of Emirates NBD Group's External Innovation program, in collaboration with Emirates Islamic.

Three winning groups got present coupons worth AED 5,000, AED 3,000 and AED 2,000 for initially, second and 3rd rewards respectively after the competitors finals that occurred at the GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai. The awards ceremony was the culmination of a month-long innovation program for over 200 school trainees aged in between 13 and 17 throughout 32 GEMS schools in the UAE who worked in groups to establish innovative ideas centred around 3 challenge themes: Future Banking, Innovation in Cards and Community, creating business models and basic prototypes for their concepts.

The winning team, Amwallet, proposed a personal financial management app based on expert system. The second placed team, Cred+ proposed an app for youth that would gather points based upon their active participation with the bank. The Epsilon team was placed 3rd and presented an intriguing principle of app-only digital debit card.

Commenting on the innovation competition, Husam Al Sayed, Group Chief Human Resource Officer, Emirates NBD said, "As a company that positions development and innovation at the heart of its consumer offering, we were delighted to tap into the potential of these young minds and offer them a creative environment to innovate. As Dubai moves on in the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai to end up being a smart city, Emirates NBD looks forward to fostering a greater innovation culture not just within our bank, but likewise in our community."

Emirates NBD is a digital pioneer in the GCC region and a key player in the emerging international digital banking market. In current times, Emirates NBD has actually released significant innovations to keep itself at the forefront of digital banking in the UAE, in support of the UAE's smart transformation. The bank recently announced a AED 500 million investment over the next three years towards digital innovation and multichannel transformation of processes, products and services.

Nargish Khambatta, Principal, GEMS Modern Academy added, It is important to provide opportunities to young innovators to re-kindle their already curious minds to make a difference in day to day life, not only what is around them now but for the future generations to come. This event was a great mix of practical ideas, futuristic thinking and entrepreneurial style of pitching. It was fabulous to see 13 - 17 year olds from GEMS Schools engage in a meaningful exercise like this. We are glad that we hosted the Citizens of the Tomorrow competition by Emirates NBD Group as part of our innovation for community program.