Announcing Techrity’s #Build4InformalSector Hackathon 2020

Techrity’s #Build4SocialGood presents;

Build For The Informal Sector (sdg9) 

Prize

$250

Timeline of Activities

1. Registration begins 1st December 2020 via Hackathon Registration
2. Join the Slack Workspace
3. Hackathon Starts: 7 December 2020
4. Project Submission Deadline: 21-23rd December 2020 
5. Judging starts: 28th December – 2nd January 2021
6. Demo Day/Award Ceremony: 16th January 2021

Why #Build4Informal Sector?

Nigeria’s informal economy has grown considerably over the last decade.

These are the individuals and micro-enterprises whose economic well-being is birthed and buoyed on the fringes of the formal economy; business activities that remain unregulated, and oftentimes, completely unknown.

Initially, much of the rhetoric centred on the need to ‘manage’ this ever-expanding behemoth that the informal sector was becoming. This narrative has since evolved into one that seeks to formalise these businesses, by catering to their needs and providing them with much-needed support.

Like other parts of the economy, the informal sector has taken a hit from the COVID-19 crisis. Governments have mandated workers to take costly protective measures, such as the regular purchase of masks, the reduction in the number of passengers for motorcycle taxis, or the observance of curfews. Farmers have seen falling demand for their produce as restaurants have reduced their purchases in the face of dwindling traffic.

Key Areas Of Focus

We leave it to you to design the new conditions for the informal economy, and offer the following provocations as a place to get started for your MVPs, prototypes, etc;

1. On-lending facility and access to credit through non-traditional financial channels
   1. For example, how might we build custom financial solutions for entrepreneurs to access credit outside the regular financial system, other methods of crowdfunding exist such as cooperative funding with little to no default on loan acquisition.
2. Identity management
   1. Beyond the use of identity cards, bank verification numbers, etc., how can we design an economy where individuals can build a solid identity with other means of identification they can provide such as their telephone number, Social security numbers, school certificates, etc.
3. Credit-score/reputation based rating
   1. Using purchasing behavior, community validation, etc. How can we design an economy that takes into cognizance an individual behavior as a form of credit score acquisition, for e.g, the ability to use an individual’s reputation overtime on social media as a means to build their credit and reputation score for use in accessing credit and lending facilities outside non-traditional financial systems.

For more info, see the Issues Board.

How to Join

1. Register your team to hack: Hackathon Registration
2. Join the slack channel: Techrity Slack Workspace
3. Read the hackathon guide

How To Submit Hackathon Project

Follow the steps outlined on the #Build4SocialGood Repository readme instructions to submit your project.

Official Hashtags

Please promote this hackathon so it can reach a wider audience on Social Media using the following hastags.

We can’t wait to see what you have built!

Happy Hacking!!