RCCG Holds First Faith-based Hackathon in Nigeria

RCCG Holds First Faith-based Hackathon in Nigeria

Mary Nnah

The Redeemed Christian Church of God, a trailblazer and a frontrunner in driving innovation that is positioning the Church and Africa as a global stakeholder in solving one of the greatest global epidemics – poverty, through its Young Adults and Youth Affairs has successfully held the first ever faith-based hackathon in Nigeria and second of the few in Africa.

The event which held from November 1 to 3, 2018 was tagged ‘Kingdom Hack’. The objective of Kingdom Hack was to drive social change through technology.

This year, the focus was on addressing the challenge of poverty through redistribution of wealth. Hackers from different parts of the country came together and were tasked with the responsibility of developing tech products and innovations that will enable redistribution of wealth and greater generosity.

Nine teams mentored by experts competed for the ultimate prize and at the end of the three-day event, Team Credital won the Hackathon ahead of team LinkUp and team Wagro. The three top teams were trailed by the six other teams.
Team Credital developed a peer-peer lending platform aimed at exploring the lending market place in Nigeria with a bid to help accelerate the growth of small and medium scale enterprises and in turn, create a chain reaction of wealth redistribution and fight poverty in the process.

Speaking earlier at the beginning of the event, Bayo Adekanmbi, Chief Transformation Officer of MTN Nigeria, spoke about the dangers posed by poverty and its effect on national productivity as he challenged participants to position themselves as the game changers in driving the change of narrative.

He also took the participants through an inspiring session which focused on how to develop innovative products that can address the subject matter with many eye opening case studies.

The National Young Adults and Youth Pastor of RCCG, Pastor Precious Akingbade, spoke about the strength of the youths and young adults as a major tool that can create wealth and reduce poverty if properly harnessed, as the Redeemed Christian Church of God is currently doing.

In his remarks, the International Director of Programs, RCCG Young Adults and Youth Affairs, Pastor Oluwadamilare Adeboye congratulated the participants whom he described as the pioneers of a landmark initiative focused on solving a problem that has held the world in ransom for too long.

He further stressed that Kingdom Hack is one of the major initiatives through which the church is living up to her responsibility as a key stakeholder in driving social change.

The event also featured judges who are experts in various subjects’ matter in the tech community within and outside Nigeria.

Busola Oyefeso, CEO Tailorbricks; Kayode Adeyinka, Co-MD Jumia Ghana; Babajide Asegbeloyin, Techspace Ecosystem Business, FCMB all added colours to the event as they employed their expertise and experience to determine the winners of the event.

At the end of the event, the winner, Team Credital walked home with a whopping sum of N1million, the first runner up, Team LinkUp walked home with N750,000 while the second runner-up, Team Wagro, smiled home with N500, 000.

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