The Bank of Ghana (BoG), in collaboration with EMTECH Solutions Inc., has announced the launch of an eCedi hackathon to provide opportunities for FinTechs, developers and innovators to design innovative solutions that explore various use cases of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Registration for the eCedi Innovation Challenge, which was announced yesterday, 3rd October 2023, will open applications on 6th October 2023.
The event, dubbed, “eCedi Hackathon”, is an innovation challenge set to run for a 12-week period, during which innovators will brainstorm to come up with solutions to address financial inclusion challenges in Ghana.
The event will provide a platform for developers, innovators, and blockchain enthusiasts to
showcase their creativity by exploring the many possibilities of CBDC technology and contribute to the future of Ghana’s digital financial ecosystem.
The event will culminate in a conference during which solutions judged to be impressive will be recognized in an award ceremony.
A hackathon is a time-bound, collaborative, and intensive event where individuals or teams come together to work on creative and innovative projects, typically related to technology, software development, or problem-solving.
The event typically brings together programmers, designers, engineers, and other professionals often with diverse backgrounds and skills to brainstorm ideas and create working prototypes or software applications.
The project is part of the eCedi research project and presents an opportunity for the Bank to explore emerging technologies, foster creativity and contribute to the advancement of eCedi development.
The objectives of the eCedi Innovation Challenge is to encourage local developers to showcase their creativity by collaborating with peers to generate innovative solutions towards solving financial inclusion problems based on the eCedi.
“It will also Facilitate CBDC knowledge sharing among the Bank of Ghana, banks and payment service providers; and Provide an opportunity for networking and collaboration with other organisations and software developers working in the CBDC domain”, the statement read.
Bank of Ghana invites interested individuals and teams to join in this journey to investigate new ideas of making eCedi relevant in diverse use cases.
