Physical Address
4 Elgon Terrace, Kololo, Kampala, Uganda
As part of Africa AI Literacy Week 2025, Konza Technopolis, Qhala, Huawei and other partners hosted a 24-hour hackathon and a range of training programs aimed at building AI awareness and skills among young Africans and teachers. These events are already showing impact in innovation and education.
What Happened
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The AI Literacy Week kick-off events were held at Qhala HQ in Nairobi and mirrored in other cities across Kenya—Nakuru, Kilifi, Kisumu, Mt Kenya—as well as in countries like Zambia, Senegal, and Togo. Over 700 teachers registered for “Train-the-Trainer” style programs through national Teachers Service Commissions. A high-impact 24-hour hackathon engaged 50 student participants from universities across Africa (some in-person, some remote) to build AI-powered solutions in sectors including Agriculture, Fintech, Healthcare, Education, and Governance.
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The winner developed a tool to predict market prices for agricultural products, combining historical pricing, real-time market data, and weather forecasting — aimed at helping smallholder farmers and traders make informed decisions.
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Other participants built solutions such as multilingual AI chatbots that deliver personalized farming advice and AR-based visual aids for infrastructure planning. Mentors from academia, tech firms, and Konza supported ideation, prototyping and presentation phases.
Why It Matters
AI literacy is more than teaching code — it’s giving people tools to solve real problems they face. By involving teachers and students across multiple countries, AI Literacy Week helps seed long-term innovation and helps ensure that AI solutions are rooted in local needs. Embedding AI in education systems early increases the odds of sustainable impact.
What to Watch
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Scaling these programs: reach more schools, more teachers, especially in rural areas.
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Ensuring that tools created at hackathons move beyond prototypes to real deployment.
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Supporting infrastructure — reliable internet, computing devices — which remains a big barrier in underserved regions.
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Long-term measurement: tracking whether teacher training and student innovation result in meaningful outcomes (better learning, better livelihoods etc.).
