Students participating in a recent hackathon have called on partners to invest more in youth innovation through better access to internet, laptops, servers, and free online courses.
The students were speaking during the Africa AI Literacy Week Hackathon award ceremony hosted by Qhala, Huawei, and Konza Technopolis that drew 50 student participants from universities across Africa, including an in-person team and a remote cohort from Moi University.
“We’re asking our partners to give resources to students things like internet, laptops, servers, and online training,” said Ian Njenga, a member of the winning team. “This will help us increase our creativity and develop solutions to problems in agriculture, unemployment, education, climate change, and health.”
Participants were challenged to build AI-powered solutions addressing real-world problems in key thematic areas: Agriculture, Fintech, Healthcare, Education, and Governance.
The event put a strong emphasis on agriculture a sector critical to Africa’s economy and food security and inspired practical, high-potential innovations from the next generation of tech talent.
Njenga’s team took the top prize for developing an AI-powered tool to predict agricultural market prices, helping farmers anticipate trends for products such as milk and boost their earnings.
By aggregating historical data, real-time market trends, and weather patterns, the tool aims to reduce market uncertainty, minimize exploitation, and increase profitability for smallholder farmers.
“We know that in Africa, agriculture is what will improve our lives. We need to feed the population. We need to reduce poverty,” Ian said. “So we chose agriculture as our solution. Through artificial intelligence, you can predict market prices of goods in agriculture. So we use the artificial intelligence to predict prices maybe of milk or any other agricultural products.”
The Hackathon sparked a broader conversation about the potential of AI and the risks it posses.
“We know artificial intelligence is quite the demon. Because it can come for your jobs we are asking ourselves, how can artificial intelligence be used to solve unemployment?” Njenga remarked. “How can it be used to solve climate change?
To solve problems in education, maybe special needs, maybe health sector. How can we use it in surgeries and maybe robotics?” He added as he appealed to partners to assist youth with more resources in this field.
Two teams shared second place. One team designed a comprehensive farm data collection and analysis system, enhanced with an AI chatbot to guide farmers in best practices, yield forecasting, and pest management. The chatbot, available in local languages, bridges the knowledge gap for rural farmers, offering personalized insights even without constant internet access.
The second runner-up team introduced an AI and Augmented Reality (AR) mobile application that overlays real-time building intelligence such as infrastructure conditions, usage stats, or historical context through a smartphone camera.
Although the core application is geared toward urban planning and construction, the team demonstrated how the same model could be adapted to farm structures and agricultural infrastructure, offering insights on storage optimization, irrigation mapping, and more.
The top team received Huawei MatePad tablets, while the two runners-up were awarded Huawei Band 10 smartwatches tools to support their continued development and exploration of tech innovation.
In his remarks, Huawei Director for Policy and Partnership Adam Lane reaffirmed the company’s commitment to nurturing Kenya’s tech ecosystem.
“Huawei is proud to provide the latest skills, Cloud platforms, and resources that empower African developers to build AI solutions. We believe in building local capacity, and that means partnering with government, academia, and startups to make tech accessible and impactful.”
He pledged the firm’s goal in contributing and supporting local innovation, local youth, local students to help develop solutions that can help solve problems and create jobs.
“I think that’s really what the goal of AI is, really how to solve solutions and including how to create jobs and entrepreneurship and grow the businesses in Africa and in Kenya.” He said.
Additionally, he pointed to smartacademy.go.ke, a platform supported by Huawei and the Kenyan government, which offers free online training in AI and other ICT skills to students across the country.
Speaking at the same forum, Dr. Shikoh Gitau, CEO of Qhala emphasized the urgency of AI literacy across the continent.
“AI is such a consequential technology, and Africa cannot be left behind,” she said. “Africa AI Week is about building awareness and fluency so that by the end of 2026, at least 15% of the African population understands and can engage with AI meaningfully.”
She underscored the need for culturally relevant AI education reminding participants that “Africa cannot afford to be left behind as AI transforms industries and societies. We must create the awareness, support, and platforms that allow African youth to innovate and solve problems through AI because they understand our challenges best.”
“We’re asking how do you even say ‘artificial intelligence’ in your mother tongue? What does AI mean to the average African? Because we’re already using it in our day-to-day lives we just don’t recognize it yet.”
