Annually, the family of Innocent Chukwuma and ICCEF mark the memorial of Innocent who died on the 3rd of April 2021. This year 2023, ICCEF funded the Oluaka Institute of Technology in Obinze Imo State to carry out a tech hackathon as part of the activities to mark the 2nd impact and Legacy memorial of Innocent Chukwuemeka Chukwuma. The tech hackathon took place on April 4, 2023, at the Oluaka Institute with participants drawn from various communities within and outside Imo State.
This tech hackathon aimed to identify and support budding startups that will build products providing solutions in the areas of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 4, 8, 17).
With the support from ICCEF, OIT put out a call in March 2023 for tech hackers to submit their entries around SDG 4,8 and 17. Ten (10) tech startups responded to the call and were reviewed and screened to 5. The review process considered the following criteria: aligning with the SDGs, being scalable, and being a startup in the southeast. At the tech hackathon event, the 5 selected startups pitched their products and three (3) startups were selected as winners with the help of the judges who evaluated the hackers on the uniqueness of value (in reference to the identified sustainable development goals), team strength, technology inclination and market share.
The total sum of N200,000.00 (Two Hundred thousand Naira) was mapped out as startup support for the three (3) winners. The first winner Okwuoa Chukwuebuka of Softwork, (an Edtech solution) went home with N100,000, the second winner Godfirst Onuoha of Graduate clearance system, (Edtech) N50,000, and the third winner Mathaiasonu Chikiesiri of Share-buy, (e-commerce platform dealing on local products) went home with N50,000. Mrs Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, the Executive Director of Oluaka Institute on behalf of the Board, offered to admit all the participating startups into a business incubating process that promised to take them through lean methodologies and prototyping for the market. Against this backdrop, the finalists were admitted to a 3 months boot camp, to have the judges mentor them through the development stage, ideation and prototyping stage, and market entry.
The hackathon was a success and its emphasis commitment is to building platforms that unlock opportunities for peer learning and value-building initiatives.
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