The first hackathon in northern Nigeria was held on the 23rd and the 24th of March 2015 in the city of Jos, with 30 coders in 9 teams from Jos, Abuja and Bauchi in attendance.
During the event, Daser David, the head of the team behind #HackJos, said that they were hoping that the competition becomes an annual affair and that the 2016 edition will be bigger and better. Even bigger still, they nurtured an ambition to build an ecosystem (Silicon Plateau they tag it) around the northern city of Jos. It’s a long road from #HackJos 2015 and going by what is on ground, especially of its announcement of this year’s #HackJos 2016, they most likely had worked out the entire plan – or most of it.
This year's Hackathon, tagged HackJos 2016, will have International stakeholders and the local ICT community converge in Jos, Plateau State capital later in November for the hackathon – the software and apps competition designed to foster interest among young people in software development and the entire spectrum of ICT.
The 4 day software development marathon will also feature a 1 day conference with the theme: “How ready is Nigeria for the internet of things (IOT).” The event is conceived to be a meeting point for budding entrepreneurs and already established tech companies as well as for policy makers and investors.
About 30 teams consisting of a minimum of 3 developers/‘hackathoners’, 10 judges, 10 tech support team and over 300 live audience and spectators will be housed for 4 days in a marathon of wit, entrepreneurship and mental fitness to develop app-solutions under the framework of Nigeria’s readiness for IOT and sector-by-sector challenges in Nigeria’s economic space.
“HackJos was created in 2015. Our belief is that when you get the right people to connect, good things happen. We also believe that competition fuels innovation. Through a number of technology and innovation challenges, new breed of entrepreneurs can evolve and these challenges has mainly been centered on finding solutions to real problems in Nigeria and Africa. The success of the event recorded in 2015 spurred the decision to make it a yearly event. We are glad to collaborate with Qitech and Knowhow Media International as co-organisers to expand the value proposition of this event targeting young people and established entrepreneurs and government,” added Daser to flag off the official commencement of activities for the Hackjos 2016.
The HackJos challenge-driven hackathon is bringing together tech savvy citizens, scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, students, programmers and developers across Nigeria to get involved and showcase their ingenuity and talents in the pursuit of creating compelling solutions that cut across mobile, desktop, web and hardware (embedded systems) that will help solve problems relevant to the various sectors of the Nigerian economy.
