Young techies invited to ‘hack’ Big Four Agenda

Young people with ideas on how technology solutions based on mobile apps, databases and web portals can support the government’s Big Four Agenda have an opportunity to showcase their ideas at the upcoming “Hack-the-Big-4” mentorship forum, which kicks off this Saturday, 8 September 2018 at the HeriHub, National Museum of Kenya. 

The hackathon is an innovation and mentorship platform that seeks to nurture ideas and technology solutions developed by youth and which centre on tangible economic and social impacts in the Big Four Agenda.

Non-profit organisation eMentoring Africa (eMA) is behind the two hackathons which will be held on September 8 and 15. ICT Authority also features while Huawei are part of the sponsors.

After the youth take their ideas forward with their mentors, the solutions will be presented to an audience of ICT professionals in the public, development and private sectors. Entrepreneurs, experts on the Big Four Agenda and investors will also constitute the panel providing review, feedback, validation and elevation to the next level.

Winning solutions will be awarded and supported to full development.

In Kenya more than one in every 5 Kenyans is aged between 15 to 24 years thus totaling to almost 10 million youth. As a result, about 10 million young people in the next decade are projected to enter the labor market which currently employs only 2.3 million in the formal sector.

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Youth population continues to experience high levels of unemployment and underemployment – and thus the tech-solutions can not only solve the Big Four issues, but also address this challenge of creating jobs for themselves and their peers. The developers therefore embark on leveraging the impact the youth have in the country to create long lasting and immediate solutions to the existing challenges and gaps in various sectors of the economy.