Hacklab Foundation is set to host the largest annual hackathon on Friday, 19th April – Saturday, 21st, at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi with over 600 student developers from 18 tertiary institutions.
The event will address the topic: “Can Blockchain Technology Transform the Service Industry in Ghana?”
Hacklab Foundation picks a theme based on trending discussions/issues in technology that need addressing from grassroots engagement as they are the relevant stakeholders to every high-level decision made at the government and corporate level. This year they will be discussing and developing solutions using blockchain technology.
The objective of this year’s hackathon is to increase the number of blockchain developers and grow local use cases of blockchain technology to address existing challenges in the Ghanaian service industry.
In an interview with the Founder & President, Foster Awintiti Akugri, he said: “Blockchain Technology has exhibited great potential to address the issues around trust, transparency and accountability and democracy as quoted in the book titled: 4th Industrial Revolution, authored by Professor Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum as the “technology of trust”.
“I believe that Africa’s cancer de corruption and transparency can be addressed by Blockchain Technology. Through this year’s hackathon, we also hope to grow the number of blockchain developers and use cases for Africa through the hackathon as we’ve championed in the previous years with Financial Inclusion, E-Commerce and IoT.”
The Hackathon challenge will task participants to develop solutions to address problems in the Education, Agriculture, Energy, Tax, Financial Service, Healthcare, Transportation and Logistics Sector using Blockchain Technology.
There are so many opportunities for the participants including 10 award categories with a total of GHC12,000.00 in cash prizes to be won, on-spot internships and job recruitments and investment opportunities to scale solutions that emerge from the hackathon challenge.
Other perks will also be awarded to winning teams including IBM Cloud Credits, Google Cloud Credits, RingCaptcha Credits, Start-up branding opportunities for the top 10 teams among others. The winning teams will also get the opportunity to participate in the Hacklab-GSBS Start-up School, a 6-week pre-incubation program to further develop their solutions.
How to Register for the Hackathon
Download the official event App Hacklab Connect available on
Google Play Store: https://goo.gl/zoXYNM
Apple’s Appstore: https://goo.gl/ok1Djb
Or visit website via: www.connect.hacklabgh.org
Participating schools include Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Technical University, Ho Technical University, Ghana Telecommunication University College, Koforidua Technical University, Central University, Ashesi University, Christian Service University College, University of Development Studies, Garden City University, Kessben University College, University of Ghana, Wisconsin International University College, Pentecost University College, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, Ghana and many more.
StephanieHorsu/techvoiceafrica.com
