Code Cash Crop 4.0, the fourth annual ag-hackathon hosted by AFEX, the continent’s largest participant in the commodities market, aims to harness the convergence of technology, finance, and agriculture and provide a venue for young tech enthusiasts to develop workable solutions.
In order to address the challenges facing Africa’s food systems, Code Cash Crop hosts an exciting industry event that brings together experts from the agriculture, finance, and technology fields.
Following AFEX’s operational expansion into the East African nation last year, Kenya participated in this year’s edition for the first time.
Three winners emerged from the grand finale, which took place in Lagos, Nigeria.
Six finalists from Kenya and Nigeria presented their solutions to the judges at the grand finale following a two-day intense boot camp.
Farm CI took home the $10,000 top prize as the overall winner of Code Cash Crop 4.0.
Their solution aims to create a large database of agricultural data that can be accessible by a smartphone app, a WhatsApp chatbot, or a USSD platform.
Farmers with low-end mobile phones can utilize Farm CI because it is made to be user-friendly and accessible.
Kenyan MCHE and Silo Africa came in second and third, respectively receiving $7000 and $5000.
Themed “Scaling Market-led Solutions,” this year’s Ag-hackathon brought together the most ambitious and cutting-edge solutions that addressed gaps spanning data, logistics, and extension services for Africa’s agriculture value chain. Over 100 proposals were received over a 3-month period.
These were reduced to the top 25, and boot camps were held in three African cities to choose the final six. The final boot camp and live pitch sessions with judges were then held in Lagos. The challenge’s four key criteria for choosing winners were each solution’s viability, profitability, scalability, and feasibility.
As an entrepreneur, Yakubu said, “ Winning CCC 4.0 is a life-changing opportunity for me as an entrepreneur, and I would like to say ‘thank you’ to AFEX and its partners for the initiative. I am also grateful for the constructive feedback I received during the boot camp to improve upon my solution. I look forward to using the prize money and networking opportunities from this competition to scale up my business and actualize my dreams. ”
AFEX’s commitment to investing in Africa’s future is realized through the annual challenge, which provides funding, mentoring, and other support to promising young digital talents and entrepreneurs in Nigeria and Kenya so that they can develop sustainable agric business models.
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