Ethiopia Hacks! just launched the first in a series of 12 hackathons as part of its annual Global Entrepreneurship Week celebration. It is a programme organised by the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, in partnership with the Google Developers Group (GDG- Addis) and the Centre for Accelerated Women’s Economic Empowerment (CAWEE)

The event which held at the American Centre in Addis Ababa focused on entrepreneurship. It would ensure participants will explore how technology can be used to support innovation and Job creation.

Each of these hackathons will challenge young tech developers to identify prototype solutions to challenges in Ethiopia as the program will invest in the capacity of 600 tech-savvy youth, who will be opportune to participate and generate solutions for their communities.

Thanks to the effort of current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia, ranked as the fifth poorest country in the world Ethiopia, is high atop a mountain of several challenges needing all human and capital resources to create a more comfortable environment in Ethiopia.

Landlocked Ethiopia’s foremost challenge is drought coupled with the fact that a more significant percentage of the country’s population are farmers. This ensures citizens live in poverty with 23.5 % of the population estimated to live in poverty.

After its peace treaty with Eritrea, Ethiopia has embarked on a lifetime Journey towards rebuilding its state. U.S embassy would be supporting Ethiopia by developing an eco-system that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation and technology by investing in Ethiopians to shape the future of their country.

“…as Ethiopia embarks on the hard work of building its brighter future, there will be challenges.  However, as this competition shows, challenges exist to be solved, and the challenges Ethiopia faces will be solved first and foremost by Ethiopians,” U.S. Ambassador Michael Raynor noted.

The annual Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), which held between November 12-18, 2018, is designed to celebrate self-starting innovators and connect entrepreneurs to potential collaborators, mentors, and investors.

Global Entrepreneurship Week has fostered the spirit of entrepreneurship globally with millions of participants at thousands of events in nearly 170 countries.