The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy (FMCIDE) has expressed commitment to supporting digital solutions that will aid the agriculture sector’s growth.
Given this, the FMCIDE, in partnership with AI Collective, has announced the top 10 finalist teams selected to advance to the in-person stage of the Hack4Livestock National Hackathon.
The Hack4Livestock Hackathon is a national initiative designed to mobilise Nigeria’s vibrant tech ecosystem—startups, innovators and developers—to co-create scalable digital solutions for the livestock sector.
These finalists emerged after a rigorous and transparent two-phase screening process from a list of highly competitive applications by 467 teams (made up of 1761 members) submitted nationwide.
The ministry noted that all finalists demonstrated an exceptional combination of technological innovation, relevance to livestock challenges, and potential for real-world impact in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
The call for applications was launched by the Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, Dr ‘Bosun Tijani, on May 1st, 2025, on social media and traditional media across the country.
Due to overwhelming interest and high-quality submissions, the application deadline was extended from May 12th to May 14th, 2025.
The ministry explained that the selected team would proceed to the next stage of the competition, where they would receive mentorship, prototype their solutions, and compete for implementation support and national recognition.
Tijani on X, yesterday, listed the selected teams to include AgroRithm Nigeria, Agrolinking Solutions Limited, Agro Alliance, AgroGenX, ANiMeDRig, African Intelligence, HerdGuard, J-Vincent, Livestocx and Vetable.
He said the selected teams will now move on to receive expert mentorship, prototype their solutions, and compete for national recognition and implementation support.
Explaining the screening process, the minister, who said the Phase One screening process, was designed to ensure that only eligible, livestock-focused, and technologically viable applications advanced to the next stage, noted that among the fields evaluated in the submission form, include legal consent, impact, country, problem statement, proposed solution, target users, development stage, among others.
The ministry’s document showed that selected teams were required to have a minimum of three and a maximum of five members.
Applications from solo applicants or teams outside this range were disqualified.
For phase two, the ministry said all shortlisted submissions underwent a second round of evaluation conducted by an independent committee of experts. The independent committee conducted evaluations individually to avoid group bias and ensured that the evaluation criteria were uniformly applied to all submissions.
The document noted that the selection methodology for Hack4Livestock was designed for integrity, objectivity, and alignment with national priorities. It noted that by combining rigorous eligibility checks in Phase One with anonymous, expert-led technical reviews in Phase Two, this methodology ensured that only the most relevant, innovative, and impactful teams were selected to participate in the national hackathon.
