social-good – Techrity Blog

Showcasing Tech Innovations for Social Good in Africa.

What is Tech for Good?

The Tech for Good (T4G) is an annual conference that aims to showcase the impact of using Technology for Social Good in Africa.

It is the intentional use of technology to try and have a positive, measurable impact on the world. It’s about using technology to solve big social and environmental challenges.

Why Tech for Good?

There is a lot of negative information being spread out there concerning Tech and its use in Africa. We created Tech for Good to solve this problem.

First, the evolution of technology is beneficial to humans for several reasons. At the medical level, technology can help treat more sick people and consequently save many lives and combat very harmful viruses and bacteria. … Technology has also increased the productivity of almost every industry in the world.

Technology affects the way individuals communicate, learn, and think. It helps society and determines how people interact with each other on a daily basis. It’s made learning more interactive and collaborative, this helps people better engage with the material that they are learning and have trouble with.

In summary, it has become an intricate part of our being.

There is a lot of good being done in the Tech Space, startups, innovators, individuals, companies, NGOs are working tirelessly to ensure lives are improved. How much of those actions are being showcased especially in the international media?

T4G brings together students, communities, hubs, organizations, Non-profits, etc to explore veritable use cases for using technology for social good.

Aims and Objectives

Showcase innovations in Technology across African Continent
Foster Collaboration
Provide mechanisms for people to access or use technologies in an open, cost-efficient, and sustainable way.
Promote Diversity and Inclusion in Tech. Tech for Good welcomes everyone who has made an impact using Technology in Africa.

Event Recap

The Tech for Good Conference was held on the 2nd October 2021 at TechCreek, Rivers State ICT. Port Harcourt.

The event featured;

Talks
Kickstart Award Presentation
Inaugural Ceremony

Event Stats

No of Attendees: over 250 attendees

Social Impact Orgs: 10

Social Impact Projects: 2

Speakers: 5

Partners/Sponsors: 2

Present at the Conference was;

Mr Ibifuro Asawo (SA to Rivers State Govt.) was represented by Ella Blaise. She spoke on the topic Driving Social Good Innovations and Youth Development using Technology

Daniel Don (Founder, Frontend Mentorship) spoke on Using your Tech Skills for Social Good

Goodnews (CEO, Dantown Multiservices) spoke on Using Blockchain for Social Good

Stephen Okonkwo (Product Lead, Voyance) spoke on his Journey in Tech

Social Impact Organizations

Accelerate Hub was represented by the Women in Tech Accelerate Lead.

Fairexx Solutions was represented by Godfrey Ayaosi, Product Manager.

HerTechTrail was represented by Alex Chibueyim, Design Director at HerTechTrail.

CodeAmbassadors representative speaking at the Tech for Good Conf.

OlotuSquare was represented by Bruce Lucas, CEO OlotuSquare.

FemCode Africa was represented by Shullamite, Founder of FemCode.

TechnovilleNG was represented by the Founder, Technoville – Richard Sodienye Pepple

Kickstart Award Presentation

The award was presented to the recipients of the Kickstart Award Scholarship which consists;

Personal Laptop
Data support
6months Training.

The recipients of the scholarship were;

Prince Onuzulike from Inama International College
Chijioke Egbomuche from Hybrid College

Prince Onuzulike receiving his scholarship

Prince Onuzulike receiving his T4G swag from our partner company Dantown

Prince Onuzulike and his mother and siblings with a representative from the Inama International College – Mavis Ejiofor (right)

Chijioke Egbomuche receiving his scholarship from the CEO, Dantown Mr Goodnews Igwe

Chijioke Egbomuche and his Father (Left)

Read more about the TechingTheYoung Outreach 2021.

A Look at Our Partners and Sponsors

Dantown is a fintech company that solves on-ramp and off-ramp payment problems by providing a secure environment through its mobile application, where users can trade cryptocurrency and gift cards.

Our services are geared with customers’ needs in mind. This is the reason we focus on securing the funds of customers, provide a 24/7 helpdesk service, and also offer great digital asset-to-fiat rates.

The company’s goal is to provide more services within the coming months that will further make financial settlements safer, easier and more accessible for the unbanked.

Founder, Techrity in a group photo with the Dantown Team

Productsio is a learning hub for product builders. we train product makers to build products that are intuitive, that deliver real, usable and commercially valuable innovation through research and understanding in-depth the different cultural keys that go into making a product attractive to local markets.

Productsio representative, Iyerefa speaking

Productsio, sponsors of Tech for Good represented by the Productsio Team

Inaugural Ceremony

Techrity is a tech non-profit that began its operations in December 2020, incorporated in April 2021 and officially launched on 2nd October, 2021 focused on talent development and building innovative solutions using technology for social good in Africa.

We aim to bridge the gap in unemployment, gender inclusion and poverty by providing the vital resources needed to kickstart young talents into tech and build solutions for social good in Africa.

We envision an Africa where everyone has equal access to opportunities. Has a motivation to pay it forward. We’re engineering the spirit of social good in Africans. We believe if we solve the problem of the digital divide, gender inclusion gap, unemployment and target more social innovations with technology we can inspire social good actions in others.

Tech for Good Team, Speakers, Special Guests cutting the inaugural cake

You can follow the updates from the Tech for Good conference on Social Media using the hashtag:

#T4G
#techrity
#sdg9

Important Links

For enquiries. Send a message to: hello@techrity.org

Tech for Good Livestream is available on Youtube.

Thank you for reading!

Techrity’s #Build4SocialGood presents;

Build For The Informal Sector (sdg9)

Prize

$250

Timeline of Activities

Registration begins 1st December 2020 via Hackathon Registration
Join the Slack Workspace
Hackathon Starts: 7 December 2020
Project Submission Deadline: 21-23rd December 2020
Judging starts: 28th December – 2nd January 2021
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;

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.
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.
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

Register your team to hack: Hackathon Registration
Join the slack channel: Techrity Slack Workspace
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.