The EU:Africa hackathon, due to start on 10 December, has received around 700 ideas by 2,000 people from 93 countries.
The hackathon aims to solve social and economic problems in Africa. All European Union countries are represented at the hackathon; in Africa, only a few countries are missing, the organisers said in a statement
Nigerians have the most applicants at the hackathon – 293. Estonia has the largest number of applicants from the European Union – 77.
The organisers selected 315 teams to go ahead and build solutions at the 72-hour hackathon. Food security was the most popular topic among the applications.
A free online conference
The hackathon will be accompanied by a public online conference where speakers include the Estonian president, Kersti Kaljulaid, investor and philantropist Tony O. Elumelu, entrepreneur Peter Vesterbacka, and many others. The conference can be accessed free of charge.
The EU:Africa hackathon comes with a prize fund of €100,000. The most promising teams will receive an extensive follow-up mentoring and a matchmaking programme will help bring the best ideas into real life.
Organising the hackathon is funded by the Estonian foreign ministry’s development cooperation funds with contributions from Finland, Ireland, Luxemburg, Poland and the European Investment Bank.
Estonian World will stream the online conference on 10 December at 5 PM EET (3 PM GMT).
The cover image is illustrative. Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com/Unsplash.
