DS-IHUB Opens Innovation Floodgate Hackathon 2016

Emma Okonji

The Delta State Innovation hub, (DS-IHUB) has opened the knowledge Olympiad floodgate hackathon 2016 with a promise to deliver a 48 hours non-stop coding adventure into the world of innovation and creativity.

Announcing the DS-IHUB Hackthon, the Director General of DS-IHUB, Mr. Chris Uwaje said not less than 300 teams from all knowledge-walks of life will assemble at the DS-IHUB Asaba knowledge city from 1st – 3rd December 2016 to shoot at the passion of their lives in all areas of innovation.

“This knowledge Olympiad will chase and set perhaps a new record in accelerated knowledge development – shooting at all aspects of innovation and creativity under the sun in conformity with International standard,” Uwaje said.

The DS-Open Innovation Hackathon is an initiative of Mobile Software Solutions Limited, winner of Would Summit Award for Best Africa Mobile Content 2014, in partnership with the Delta State government under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) development model. The platform is an innovation development accelerator for startups and entrepreneurs. The mission is to establish responsive knowledge factory at all levels, as the core accelerator for poverty reduction, attainment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and creation of wealth in Africa.

According to Uwaje, the DS-IHUB Open Innovation Hackathon is a corporate technology event in pursuit of hunting technology idea capable of disrupting the ecosystem and by extension, building new creative mindset through competition to help bridge the innovation gap that exists between the Nigeria software developers and the institutional needs. It will also help in embracing all domain of knowledge benefits, which include encouraging young innovators and software startups/developers to participate in an open innovation process, to trigger off their potential and inspire their creativity with the aim of increasing the quality of their works.

Uwaje further said it would eliminate the constraint that constitutes an invaluable tool for fostering innovation and creativity. To generate innovations, process and product ideas for national development – through an IT-enabled ideas competition and accommodating lapses. The initiative will also acknowledge that innovation competitions are useful in generating radical and disruptive ideas for the development of new products and solutions.

Uwaje listed expected participants to include youths from all the six regions of Nigeria, and West Africa; venture capitalists; angel investors, science and technology researchers; corporate entrepreneurs; high-end international technology innovators; promoters and masters of the trade; government policy makers, software industry players and innovation ecosystem interlocutors.

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