Digital Innovation through Blockchain technology will take centre stage when this year’s HackLab Foundation’s Hackathon opens on Friday, April 19 at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The programme is borne out of a partnership between Vodafone’s Enterprise Business, Stanbic Bank, IBM and The HackLab Foundation to digitally empower technology students at the University.

This year’s theme, “Can Blockchain Technology transform the Services Sector?” is expected to create a spark and revolutionise the thinking of the student developers on campus. The event will bring together 600 developers from over 18 institutions across Ghana to find plausible and scalable solutions for the Ghanaian and African market using Blockchain technology. Vodafone is also expected to support the best developers in implementing their ideas at the end of the session.

Blockchain technology remains a very popular technology across the world and it will be interesting to see how the students will use it to tackle pertinent issues in the services sector.

Commenting ahead of the event, Angela Mensah-Poku, Enterprise Business Director at Vodafone said: “We are always excited about the opportunity to unearth young talents in the digital technology sector. Blockchain technology is a very fascinating concept which has captured the attention of the world and this hackathon is a demonstration of our commitment to lead a digital revolution in Ghana. Our status as a leading telecom company in Ghana means we have the power to drive change in our society and this is one of the many avenues we are deploying to accelerate Ghana’s digital journey.”

Over three years, Vodafone has succeeded in executing a strategy of igniting a digital revolution in Ghana, leaving no one behind. The impact of this is felt in several platforms and initiatives including the yearly Hackathons, National Digital Coding, Instant Schools online portals and the youth skills & jobs portal.