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.
Rules & submission
Teams of 1-4. Build during the hackathon window using eSMS Africa APIs. Submit a public repo, a short demo video and a working sandbox demo before the deadline. Shortlisted teams present live to the judges.
Get a head start
- Create your free developer account and grab an API key.
- Test everything free in the sandbox - no real SMS, no balance used.
- Browse the docs and SDKs for Node, Python, PHP and Go.