Technology company Microsoft, nonprofit organisation Empire Partner Foundation and multifaceted national ecosystem SAtion will be hosting a hackathon from June 24 to 26 at the Empire Partner Foundation in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Hackathon teams have the option to hack virtually overnight on Discord from event launch to judging.
The hackathon can be joined in person or via the Discord platform online. To register an application to attend, entrants must visit the SAtion website at https://sation.org.za/events/.
The hackathon is slated to bring together skilled data experts, data engineers, data scientists, Microsoft front- and back-end developers and business analysts from across Africa.
Participants will be tasked with the challenge of solving the pervasive problem of unlocking economic growth in townships in South Africa using the opportunities available through the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
The specific problem that the hackathon seeks to solve is how tech solutions can solve township small, medium-sized and microenterprises’ (SMMEs’) business information and data challenges to improve their business efficiencies.
This issue was conceptualised in a dedicated township SMME workshop facilitated by the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation and managed by the SAtion Ecosystem team.
The workshop drew together SMMEs and entrepreneurs from Tembisa, Gauteng, to understand how the business information and data both held and not held by their enterprises can be better used to open up more SMME business growth opportunities.
According to Statistics South Africa’s latest reports, over 46% of South Africans are unemployed on the expanded definition – that is, one that includes people who are available for work, but not looking for a job.
Moreover, the Harambee Mapping of Digital and ICT Roles and Demand for South Africa Survey recently found that digital skills and services have the potential to create over 66 000 new jobs in the country’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector alone, two-thirds of which are entry-level roles.
“It’s incumbent on all of us – but especially those businesses with access to global resources and expertise – to open the channels of learning and access in our communities.
“We know that the millions of business people, entrepreneurs and consumers in our township economies should be better served through the tech capabilities that are available. But we need a plan, and we need it now, and who better to develop that plan than Africa’s own?” says Microsoft South Africa national technology officer Asif Valley.