Build for Africa Hackathon is a global initiative focusing on “Exploring Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact.” Innovators are invited to leverage AI technologies to address critical issues in health, education, economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, and more. The challenge encourages creative thinking to develop solutions aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
About the Hackathon and Awards
The Build for Africa has awarded 1 million Naira to the top three finalists of its social impact hackathon competition. The winners were awarded for their innovative ideas on utilizing artificial intelligence to bring about social impact. The Build for Africa AI hackathon is a call to action for innovators, thinkers, and problem-solvers across the globe. With a focus on “Exploring Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact,” its challenge invites participants to leverage cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies to address some of Africa’s most pressing issues.
Voices from the judges and organizers
Titus Obiezue, one of the judges of the hackathon praised the innovative ideas presented by the participants and noted that it is a sign of development and progress for the continent to achieve its potential as a developed continent. In his words, “ At Build for Africa, witnessing groundbreaking solutions reinforces the belief that innovation can shape a brighter future for Africa.”
The anchors of the program, Maryam Allison and Rukayat Smith noted that Build for Africa is not just a one-time program but a program that is aimed at occasionally building the potential of Africa into the spectrum of developed worlds. “Build for Africa has established a trajectory of utilizing the innovative minds of young Africans to enhance them to building top-notch solutions to the problems we’re facing in Africa and we’ll be looking forward to doing more of it.”
As further stated by other organizers, Abdul-Hakeem Omotayo and Mahmud Adeleye, Build for Africa will look into promoting and financing innovation for more Africans and also strive to improve sustainable living through social impact projects.” We look forward to ways to work with other organizations who are also interested in solving social impact projects. Through this, I believe we’ll make a more notable and substantial impact.”
Winning teams and their projects
The overall winner, team Agrihealth, led by Adeniran Owolabi & Esther Ogbonna, clinched the top prize for building their ‘Agrihealth’ design; A cutting-edge predictive analytics system to safeguard the health of livestock and crops. Adeniran explained that he managed to bring about a very captivating hackathon design even with his busy schedule and that he believes that this hackathon will lead to more practical solutions and a social impact project. “I greatly appreciate the effort seeing as it emanated from Nigeria and a partnership with a Nigerian higher institution shows it is Africa-oriented so I appreciate the organization. I am currently writing my exams and I almost did not submit but I was able to persevere and manage my time effectively to read for exams and also deliver for the hackathon. It’s a big impact because I have learned I should never give up and I am capable of creating solutions and will work towards building more and reaching out to people for practical use of these solutions” He noted.
Abinaya Selvaraj, Naveen Kumar & Sanjai L won the second prize for their project. They expressed their gratitude to Build for Africa and stated that they see the hackathon as an avenue to integrate self-development and to promote social impact projects and Innovation through the use of AI. ” This is a well-organized hackathon focusing on a good theme that has the potential to enhance your skills, contribute to society, and address a real-world problem. The project’s impact lies in personal and professional growth, as well as its potential to improve and contribute to social impact in the tech community.” Sanjai stated.
Oghenetega Biokoro, a student of Yabatech College emerged as the Third winner for his presentation of ‘Facial Attendance.’ This is an attendance system that uses computer vision to check if someone matches one in a database to reduce the likelihood of impersonation and to verify someone is either working or studying.
Oghenetega expressed his joy with the organizers of the hackathon. “Build for Africa has done a great job in terms of organizing this Hackathon because it is quite difficult to find an AI Hackathon organized by Africans (maybe I have not checked enough). The judges were awesome as they gave us insights into the project we built and gave us beautiful advice. I love the fact that they listened to the plea of candidates and moved the submission time a bit.” He noted.
Selection process and desired social impact
The Hackathon 7 teams were finalists who were selected from a pool of more than 80 teams. They presented a demo of their products to a panel of judges selected from the tech industry.
Also, one of the co-founders of Build for Africa, Abdullah Atitebi, noted that all the finalists started with their ideas. Atitebi said that they built amazing and innovative human resource solutions of social impact importance not only to convince the judges but to eventually transform into a successful social impact tech start-up business from Africa to the world.
“We are extremely proud of the work put in by all the organizers and partners just 14 days since we announced and opened entries for the Build for Africa hackathon. Our ultimate goal is to continuously provide support for all participants to transform their solutions into a successful venture impacting not only Nigeria and Nigerians, but the entire Africa at large,” Atitebi explained.
Other Finalists include Mind Mate by Adedoyinsola Ogungbesan and Stand udySync by ARTHI. M and AI-Driven Early Detection and Diagnosis of Chronic Diseases by Muhammad Nasiru Almansur.
The program and implementation committees of the hackathon were led by Abdulmalik Lawal, Mariam Allison, Rukayat Smith, Zulykha Akinjobi, Ojugbele Hammed, Yusuf Abdulsalam, and Alate Azeezah.
About the organization: Build for Africa believes in the power of AI to drive positive change in society. It encourages AI Engineers, Data Scientists, Software Developers, Economists, Researchers, Analysts & other tech professionals to leverage data-driven solutions to address real-world challenges facing African communities. For further inquiries, please contact Abdulmalik Lawal, the head of press communication, via email at contact@buildforafrica.org.