By The Postal Regulatory Authority Of Zimbabwe Potraz will today ( December 5th ) give away a total of $20 million RTGS to various ICT players who are contesting under the hackathon challenge in Bulawayo .
, which is being run under the National ICT Innovation Drive is running under the theme aptly dubbed “#Hacking for SDGs post COVID19 and beyond” ,
Addressing delegates in Bulawayo, Potraz Director General Dr Gift Kalisto Machengete noted
The ICT Innovation Drive is aimed at identifying, supporting and capacitating ICT innovators in the country, in order to develop their ideas into bankable solutions for Zimbabwe and the global market.
This will see teams competing in proffering the most relevant ICT solutions to solve post COVID – 19 socio-economic challenges that may hinder the country’s efforts towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Applications for the competition opened on 9 November 2020, and closed on 22 November 2020, with a total of fifty-three (53) valid applications having been received. Three (3) applications were received after the deadline and these were not accepted.
Adjudication was done on the basis of an agreed template by an adjudication team comprising six (6) external judges, drawn from academia and two from POTRAZ.
Out of the fifty-three (53) applications received, only twelve (12) teams scored 50% or better, which was the lowest threshold for a proposal to be supported under the Innovation Drive. Four of the successful teams are from here in Bulawayo, four are from Harare and we have one team each from Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mash Central and Masvingo Provinces. The innovators have been camped at this hotel from Wednesday this week to develop their prototypes.
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