The Manufacturing Solutions Hackathon is a groundbreaking event focused on transforming how Africa designs, produces, moves, and sells goods through technology. Across the continent, manufacturing remains constrained by fragmented supply chains, manual production processes, limited access to machinery data, and thousands of SME and jua kali producers operating without the digital tools to scale. This hackathon invites developers, designers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs to build practical, scalable solutions tailored to the realities of African manufacturing.

With access to Africa's Talking APIs, mentorship, and a community of innovators, participants will build across key areas of manufacturing technology delivering solutions that are impactful, inclusive, and market-ready.

Addressable Problems in Manufacturing Solutions

• Supply Chain & Procurement Optimization - Build platforms that help manufacturers discover suppliers, source raw materials, and automate procurement, with order confirmations over SMS/USSD and supplier payments via M-Pesa integrations.

• Inventory & Stock Management - Develop real-time stock tracking tools, automated low-stock SMS alerts, and barcode/QR-based inventory systems designed for SMEs and informal producers with limited infrastructure.

• Predictive Maintenance & Equipment Monitoring - Create IoT-linked monitoring platforms that detect machine faults, schedule servicing, and push downtime alerts to technicians and plant managers via SMS, USSD, or Voice.

• Quality Control & Standards Compliance - Build digital QC checklists, defect-tracking tools, and platforms that help producers meet KEBS and regional standards, maintain audit trails, and manage certification workflows.

• Production Planning & Scheduling - Design shop-floor scheduling tools, job-order tracking systems, and order-to-production workflows that reduce lead times and improve throughput for small and mid-sized plants.

• Worker Safety & Workforce Management - Develop USSD-based attendance and shift management, SMS safety-incident reporting, worker communication tools, and airtime-based incentive systems for factory and site teams.

• Distribution & Last-Mile Logistics - Build order dispatch and delivery-tracking platforms, agent and distributor networks, and route optimization tools with M-Pesa collection at the point of delivery.

• SME & Jua Kali Manufacturing Enablement - Create mobile-first tools that bring informal manufacturers online order-taking via USSD, SMS, or WhatsApp, digital catalogues, and simple production and sales record-keeping.

• Traceability & Product Authentication - Build anti-counterfeit verification systems (e.g. SMS shortcode scratch-code checks), batch traceability tools, and supply-chain provenance platforms that protect brands and consumers.

• Energy & Resource Efficiency - Develop monitoring tools for power, water, and material consumption that help manufacturers cut costs, reduce waste, and report on sustainability targets.

• Order Management & Customer Communication - Create B2B order platforms with SMS/Voice order confirmations, automated status updates, and seamless M-Pesa premium and invoice collection.

• Manufacturing Finance & Working Capital - Build invoice-financing tools, supplier credit-scoring engines using alternative data, and payment automation via M-Pesa Daraja to unlock working capital for producers.

Objectives

• Bridge the Industrialization Gap: Create solutions that improve productivity, quality, and market access for African manufacturers.

• Foster Local Innovation: Empower African builders to solve the continent's unique production, supply chain, and distribution challenges.

• Promote Inclusive Manufacturing: Build tools that bring digital capability to SMEs, informal producers, and the jua kali sector.

• Encourage Responsible Development: Prioritize data privacy, standards compliance, worker safety, and ethical AI in manufacturing platforms.

• Enable Impact at Scale: Ensure solutions can grow to serve thousands of producers, distributors, and industrial workers across Africa.

Target Attendees

• Developers & Engineers

• Manufacturing & Industrial Professionals

• AI/ML & Data Scientists.

• Engineering Students & Learners

• Social Entrepreneurs & NGOs

• UX/UI Designers.

• Supply Chain & Standards Experts

Why Participate

• Access to Tools & APIs

• Mentorship & Workshops

• Collaborative Innovation

• Cash Prizes & Recognition

• Real-World Impact

• Talent & Gig Opportunities

Prizes

The winning solution will receive cash prizes as follows:

• Winner - $100 (Join Marketplace Program)

• 1st Runners Up - $50

• 2nd Runners Up - $25

Africa's Talking powers communications solutions across Africa with simplified access to telco infrastructure. Developers use our powerful SMS, USSD, Voice, Chat, Airtime and Mobile Data to bring their ideas to life, as they build and sustain scalable businesses.

Note: Carry a laptop

Take It Further: Make It Marketplace-Ready

Winning the hackathon is just the start. Turn your build into a packaged, reusable product that any business on the Africa’s Talking Marketplace can subscribe to and deploy as their own running instance.

What Makes a Solution Marketplace-Ready

A marketplace-ready solution isn’t just a working app. It’s a packaged, reusable, deployable product. Think of it less as “my project” and more as “a plugin other businesses can pay to deploy.” To qualify, your submission should meet the following:

• Containerized and pushed to the registry. Built into a Docker image and pushed to the AT-Container registry (manual push or a CI/CD pipeline via GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket).

• Built on at least one AT product. Integrate with one or more of USSD, Voice, Airtime, Insights, Bulk SMS, Premium SMS, or Mobile Data.

• Reusable by many. Unlike a private callback, a marketplace plugin is publicly listed and deployable by any customer, and each gets their own isolated instance with its own URL (e.g. https://your-app.africastalking.marketplace.dev).

• Clearly presented. It needs a name, slug, short and long descriptions, and a logo (required; a missing logo blocks submission).

• Configurable. Expose any environment variables customers should set at deploy time, and declare your database needs (default: none).

• Monetizable. At least one pricing plan is required, each specifying currency, amount, billing frequency, and a description.

• Categorized and compliant. Tag it with at least one AT product and industry (Gaming, Education, Clean Energy, Fintech, Government, or Other), and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

In short: if a stranger could find your plugin, pick a pricing plan, click Deploy, and get a live working instance, then it’s marketplace-ready.

How to Submit Your Marketplace Solution

1.   Sign in to the Marketplace at marketplace.africastalking.dev (create an account first if needed).

2.   Build and push your image. Containerize your app and push it to the AT-Container registry using the credentials and instructions in the submission form.

3.   From the homepage, click “Create Your Own Plugin.”

4.   Complete the submission form, section by section: container registry credentials; basic plugin info (name, slug, short + long description, logo); technical details (image URL, optional Git repo, database); environment variables (optional); categorization (AT product + industry, at least one); pricing plans (at least one with currency, amount, frequency, description); and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

5.   Submit. A confetti animation confirms success; an error toast means something needs fixing (most often a missing logo or required field).

6.   Track approval under “Manage Plugins” in the side menu, where you can view review status, see admin feedback, edit, archive, or publish your plugin.

Agenda (Standard Hackathon)

1.   Warm-Up: Introductions, form teams where needed, feedback & feature requests.

2.   Building / Hacking: Code in GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket and deploy via Docker / automated CI. Upon commit, the repository is built and deployed to an accessible web server or the AT Marketplace.

3.   Demonstration & Wrap-Up: Teams present their solutions, followed by feedback and next steps.

4.   Publish on the Marketplace: publish your solution on the Africa’s Talking Marketplace to be considered a winner.

Opportunities

• Network and innovate on real African problems with production-grade APIs.

• Access our Talent Bench: you can land a job or a gig on the spot.

Submit Your Idea

All attendees planning to present should complete the Hackathon Idea Submission Form. It is used to reach out to participants later.

Gigs

Open to building for our customers? Complete the Gig/Hack Developer Portfolio Form so we can share your details with customer projects.

Join the Community

• Slack: join the Africa’s Talking Slack community

• X (Twitter): @AfricasTalking

• Facebook: Africa’s Talking on Facebook

• Instagram: @africastalking

• LinkedIn: Africa’s Talking Ltd

• YouTube: Africa’s Talking channel

• TikTok: @africas_talking

• GitHub: github.com/AfricasTalkingLtd

• Partnerships: email developerexperience@africastalking.com

Africa’s Talking community is language- and framework-agnostic. All developers are welcome to build, learn, and exchange knowledge.

Opportunities

• Network

• Innovate

• Access to our Talent bench (You can get a job or a gig on the spot)

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Publish on Africa's Talking Marketplace

Marketplace: Get Call Back as a Service and Publish your plugin/app for our customer.

Developer Documentation (We welcome feedback)

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Submit your Idea

• Hackathon idea submission form

Gigs

We would love to reach out to you so that you can build for our customers, please fill out this form with details to ensure we have your details:

GIG/HACK DEVELOPER PORTFOLIO FORM

Would you like to partner with us? Kindly contact the Developer Experience Team.