Hack. Build. Ship. One integration, 54 countries.
When: 27 August 2026 - 02 November 2026 · Where: Online
Build for Africa is an online hackathon for developers, students, startups and engineering communities across Africa. Build something genuinely useful on eSMS Africa infrastructure - and reach users in any of the 54 African countries through a single integration.
Who it's for
Solo developers, student teams, startups and community groups. Any experience level - from your first API call to production-grade systems.
What you'll build on
REST APIs for SMS and OTP, SMPP for scale, a full sandbox for free testing, and official SDKs for Node, Python, PHP and Go. Everything you need to go from idea to working demo in a weekend.
Judging criteria
Usefulness and African impact · Technical execution · Creative use of messaging · Developer experience and polish.
Prizes
🏆 1st Place - cash prize + infrastructure credits + featured showcase
🥈 2nd Place - cash prize + infrastructure credits
🥉 3rd Place - cash prize + infrastructure credits
Plus special awards: Best African Impact, Best Developer Experience and Most Innovative Use of Messaging.