By Stanley Senya
Accra, Sept. 17, GNA – The Cortex Hub will host Model Context Protocol (MCP) Hackathon Africa 2025, a continent-wide initiative designed to embed African languages, culture, and priorities into the next generation of Artificial Intelligence.
The eight-week programme, which runs across more than 40 cities from September to November 2025, will unite developers, researchers, startups, and students to build practical solutions using MCP, an emerging open standard that enables applications to deliver structured, locally relevant information to large language models.
A statement issued in Accra said the hackathon would culminate in a continental showcase in Cape Town on 11–12 November 2025, where finalists would present to investors, incubators, and technology leaders from across the globe.
“The MCP Hackathon Africa 2025 is a strategic effort to ensure Africa plays a leading role in shaping the infrastructure of Artificial General Intelligence,” it added.
The statement said by contributing African languages, legal systems, and development priorities to MCP servers, participants would help safeguard digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on closed technologies.
It said participants could join local hubs in more than 40 cities spanning across Southern Africa, including South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Mauritius.
The West African countries would include Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal; Central Africa, including Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The East African countries are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia; and North Africa, including Morocco and Egypt.
It said these participants would access bootcamps, mentorship, peer collaboration, and technical resources, including starter code repositories and MCP documentation, to support their builds.
The statement said innovation tracks would focus on telecommunications, financial technology, agriculture, logistics, and public services, addressing practical challenges from empowering smallholder farmers with real-time information, to strengthening secure payment systems, to designing logistics platforms that support cross-border trade.
“A total prize pool of US$9,500 will be awarded, with a grand prize of US$5,000 for the best overall solution, US$3,500 USD for outstanding innovation, and US$1,000 for excellence in execution,” it added.
It said winners would also gain visibility at AfricaCom, one of the continent’s largest technology events, where they will present their work to investors and industry leaders.
Mr Andile Ngcaba, Patron of The Cortex Hub, said, “The Model Context Protocol is Africa’s opportunity to move from being consumers of AI to creators of the standards that govern it.”
He said that by coding MCP servers for our towns and cities, participants will be embedding African contexts, cultures, and priorities into the very fabric of AI’s evolution.
Mr Ahmed Mohamed, Group CEO of Datacentrix, said, “The MCP is the glue that transforms abstract algorithms into situated intelligence. By coding MCP servers for your towns, you are not just writing software but you are inscribing African contexts into the very fabric of AI’s evolution.”
“At Datacentrix, we believe that responsible leadership in the digital age requires us to reimagine business and society through a technology lens,” he added.
He said MCP was a practical step towards ethical, contextualised AI that is built with Africa’s realities in mind.
Dr Fiona Asonga, CEO of TESPOK, said, “This hackathon provides a great opportunity for the youth of Kenya and East Africa to test their skills in Artificial Intelligence, such as building AI Agents, Agentic AI, and MCPs.”
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba
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