The 10Alytics Global Data Hackathon, which held over the weekend, saw 220 participants battle to win the $1,500 cash prize.
The hackathon, now in its fifth edition, featured participants from over 20 countries across the world and was presided over by six judges from Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
[ad]
The founder of 10Alytics, Adeiza Suleman, while speaking at the grand finale of the event on Sunday, December 3rd, 2023, noted that out of the over 2,500 registered participants, only 220 made their submissions for the competition.
According to him, a dataset was presented to the participants on Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 and they were expected to come up with insights within 10 hours and using a data-driven approach, make their presentation on “Unravelling the Challenges of Unemployment in Nigeria” at the grand finale of the hackathon, which held on Sunday.
He added that the hackathon was geared towards encouraging healthy competition and enabling data enthusiasts in Africa and beyond to compete with other leading data and machine learning experts worldwide.
[ad]
At the end of the competition, Kwame Otchere from Ghana emerged as the winner of the competition and went home with a cash prize of $700, while Vivian Oguadinma and Olabode Eso, came second and third positions, respectively, clinching $500 and $300.
Speaking on his experience, the winner – Kwame, revealed that he did not expect to win as he only came with a mindset to learn from the 10Alytics community due to their solid reputation in Data Analytics training.
He said, “I just came here to learn as 10Alytics, overtime, has created an awareness of the need for us as Africans and data people to be more aware of our challenges. I am really grateful to 10Alytics for the initiative and for throwing this particular edition of the hackathon open to all.”
On her part, the first runner up, Vivian, narrated how challenging the competition was, saying, “When I first saw the data, I was blown off track. I thought I was not going to make the hackathon. This is my first hackathon and I just wanted to have a feel of it because of how intense it is; I have heard of stories of it.
“I really appreciate the judges as they did not make me feel like an idiot after presenting. Their feedback was valuable. I’m also thankful to 10Alytics for the opportunity.”
Olabode, the second runner up, expressed his joy on being a winner. He said, “I am very happy, and I appreciate 10Alytics. I had applied for the first hackathon, as well as the alumni hackathon, but I was not successful. I applied this time and made top 3 and I am excited.
[ad]
“This has been impactful and insightful as I had to step out of my comfort zone to pull this through. I appreciate the comments from the judges and would be taking their advice into practice.”
The judges gave an overall assessment of the hackathon, describing the initiative as laudable from 10Alytics.
One of the judges, Esther Munyi, who is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Sasfin, noted that asides participating as a judge, she gained a lot and learned a lot from the
sessions and the respective presentations of the participants, as well as comments from fellow judges.
The Head of Data and Analytics at Interswitch Group, Adejoju Ajani, who also sat on the panel of judges, said she was delighted to see a lot of attention from people wanting to perform in the tech field.
She said, “It feels like people are desperate to learn and do not know that there are systems and operational strategies to encourage them. There is a need to figure out a way to continue to build the ecosystem to ensure we proliferate the data skills as it would be evident in how things are done and would cause an improvement in every facet of how things are done.”
She further pledged her support to 10Alytics, adding that forums like the hackathon are what would get us the change we want while the Senior Manager, Business Data Insights at Afrocentric Group, Ncumisa Hlapo, stated that if we continue this string, generations to come would have a different narrative and story of Africa.
10Alytics co-founder, Efemena Ikpro, reiterated the company’s commitment to helping as many people as possible to transition seamlessly into tech careers by handholding them, optimising their LinkedIn pages, revamping their CVs and also preparing them for interviews and securing internships with established organisations.
[ad]
About 10Alytics
10Alytics is an EdTech helping people learn premium tech skills and lowering the entry barrier into tech for Africans. Focused on building the capacity and practical application of big data to enable participants and clients to achieve data-driven decisions.
Over the past 3 years, 10Alytics has helped Africans across the world transition from training to full-time roles as Data Analysts, Scientists, Business Analysts, etc in some
of the biggest organizations across different regions including Nigeria, USA, UK, Germany, UAE, Canada, Sweden, France, Ghana just to mention a few. This was achieved by equipping participants with both the technical and soft skills required to land jobs with the biggest organizations anywhere in the world.
Founded by Adeiza Suleman and Efemena Ikpro, the firm also has a consulting arm, which thrives to shape the data culture of organizations: how companies gather, analyze, and extract insights from data.
Some laudable projects delivered to clients involved, designing and deploying Data Warehouses and equipping corporate clients with real-time dashboards of their data, and distilling performance on pre-approved metrics have proven to be useful in enabling companies to make data-driven decisions.
You can check out about 10Alytics via www.10alytics.io
