TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG – THE international telecom developer hackathon, TADHack, will be held for the first time in Africa in October.

The event, courtesy of MTN South Africa, will be held from October 14-16 at the MTN Innovation Centre in Johannesburg.

Local developers can enter and compete against the best developers in 30 countries around the world. Entries close on 23 September 2016.

The Global TADHack challenge will see developers creating hacks using the global sponsors’ resources.

MTN Chief Information Officer, Benjamin Marais, says MTN believes this is an opportunity for local developers to decode Africa.

The company expects the developers to showcase Africas’ ability to solving African problems.

Marais says local developers participating in TADHack 2016 have the capacity to debunk the misconceptions about a lack of developer skills in Africa.

“The platform will showcase Africa’s capabilities within the app development space, highlighting our own creative thinking and the amount of knowledge and innovation that is based in our continent,” says Marais.

With the support of its global sponsors including MTN Business, IBM, Huawei, ZTE and Comviva, TADHack helps build the telecom application development ecosystem from the grass roots.

MTN is bringing the global event to South Africa as part of an ongoing campaign to stimulate innovation and development capacity in the country.

“Through our ongoing developer and start-up engagements and support initiatives, we have noted the phenomenal innovation and development skills exist in the country, and we believe challenges like TADHack help to bring them to the fore,” says Marais.
– Guardian