Nigerian Entrepreneurs Can Now Register for the Aba Hackathon to Hold In Abia State

Registration is currently on for this year’s edition of the Aba Hackathon scheduled to hold in Abia State, Nigeria.

Aba is a town in one of the South Eastern States in Nigeria abundantly endowed with enterprising young people with tremendous potential to create jobs through entrepreneurship  in key areas of leather works, shoe making and fashion design. Unfortunately, the city lacks proper infrastructure and  investment to make it thrive.

Despite these challenges, there is still some appreciable level of economic activity in Aba, especially in the key sectors of furniture design, garment works, fashion design and shoe design and manufacturing. There are estimated to be tens of thousands of small businesses that thrive in these areas, albeit informally.

In the past few years, the World Bank and the Nigerian Bank of Industry have recognized the importance of Aba in these areas and have designated the city as one of the key economic clusters of Southeastern Nigeria, especially in the areas of shoe making and leather works, as well as fashion design and furniture works.

Interestingly, in April 2016, TBWA/Concept Unit partnered with Ford Foundation, with the assistance of the Abia State Government, to develop the Proudly Made in Aba campaign.
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TBWA\Concept is part of a global network of 300 agencies in over 100 countries committed to helping brands find strategic and creative white space with the main objective of achieving growth through its proprietary strategic tool, Disruption.

As part of its commitment to growth, the TBWA\Concept identified the industrial and commercial activities in Aba as a story that had strong potential for Nigeria’s economic growth.  They identified 2 Critical Gap Areas – Awareness & Capacity Building – that if properly addressed would help the city achieve its potential.

They also saw the potentials in the strong Aba brand which will be beneficial to manufacturers and businesses from Aba and immensely beneficial to the government as regards taxes and employment.

Consequently, Aba would have flipped the negative impression associated with Made in Aba products.  But more importantly this will be in massive resonance with new federal government policy of encouraging strong local industries and clusters.

Guidelines to submitting your ideas:

• Deadline for submission of ideas is 26th February 2018
• ​Ten ideas will be shortlisted for a final presentation on the 16th of March in Aba. Only 3 winning ideas will emerge.
• ​Ideas must have economic impact on businesses based in Aba.
• ​Ideas should be focused on one or all 3 focus areas: Leather, fashion/garment and Fabrication.
• ​Winning idea must be executable in Aba which means participants most be open to relocate to the region.
• ​Ensure your idea  is well thought through, giving details on the product, insights and strategy that will make the idea a success in Aba.

Interested individuals can register here

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