The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), in partnership with the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), has awarded prizes to the winners of the Code4Africa Privacy Hackathon. They also called for the development of better solutions for data privacy to improve protection in the digital world.
The hackathon took place during the 17th annual ISACA conference in Abuja on Thursday, bringing together students who shared creative solutions for data privacy and protection.
This was the second edition of the event, which was also organized with the help of Scratch and Script Ltd, an IT and data privacy company.
Mr. Daniel Segun won the competition with his Data Guardian app and received a cash prize of N750,000. Segun said he was happy to contribute something valuable and pleased that it was recognized and rewarded.
Other winners included Mr. David Adegunse, who created a Digital Privacy Legacy Manager to track phones before their battery runs out, and Mr. Ogenyi Adams, who developed an AI Summariser. Both received a prize of N250,000.
Dr. Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner of NDPC, explained that the hackathon aimed to help young people develop Artificial Intelligence-based solutions for data privacy. He said these innovations showed how new technologies are influencing data protection.
Olatunji praised ISACA for its support and promised that NDPC would continue the collaboration for the country’s benefit.
Mrs. Chidera Ike-Okonkwo, Project Coordinator of the Code4Africa Hackathon, said the competition had more than 250 entries, including 10 virtual teams from Kenya, with one winning team from a Kenyan university.
Ike-Okonkwo added that they would promote these innovations to get support for incubation, internships, and opportunities to grow the solutions. She said they were happy that one winner was from Kenya and would give more attention to these ideas.
She also mentioned that future editions of the hackathon would include more African countries.
The event had other awards, including the humanitarian award, volunteers award, and prizes for top scorers in the Certified Information Systems Auditor exam.
The theme of the conference was “AI and Digital Trust: A Global Perspective on Opportunities, Threats, and Future Strategies.”
