The Studentpreneur Africa Festival, held on March 6, 2026, at the Accra Digital Center, brought together 700+ students, educators, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders to celebrate and foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development among African youth. Themed ‘Freedom to Create: Emerging Technologies and the Rise of African Studentpreneur’ the event featured hackathons, pitch sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities aimed at empowering the next generation of African entrepreneurs.
The Oracle Academy All-Female Hackathon was organized as one of the key competitions during the StudentPreneur Innovation Festival. The objective of the hackathon was to encourage female students to leverage Oracle Cloud resources and Oracle APEX low-code application development to build practical technology solutions while gaining exposure to collaborative development, mentorship, and real-world problem-solving.
The activity combined onboarding, a preparatory bootcamp, and a final hackathon presentation, allowing participants to learn, build, and present their work during the festival. Prior to the festival, the seven participating students took part in a one-week online bootcamp designed to prepare them for the hackathon.
Each student was assigned an Oracle Cloud account along with sign-up guidelines, which were required for participation in the competition. Students proceeded with the training after successfully signing up.
The bootcamp was facilitated by Richmond Asamoah, an Oracle partner in Ghana, with support from Emmanuel Oboni and additional engagement from Claudia Nanabea Addo-Twum, Founder of StudentPreneur Africa Network, and Bekere Amassoma, Oracle Academy Program Manager.
The sessions focused on:
- Setting up Oracle Cloud accounts and the APEX application for app development
- Introducing participants to the development platform
- Guiding participants through the project challenge
- Supporting participants with technical understanding and teamwork
- Preparing participants to present their solutions during the festival
Towards the end of the bootcamp, Richmond Asamoah assigned the project challenge titled “Community Maternal Health Tracking System” to assess participants’ understanding of application development using Oracle APEX. The aim was for students to gain hands-on experience in designing and implementing a practical maternal health solution using Oracle APEX, combining database modeling, UI development, business logic, analytics, and security.
The teams collaborated throughout the training period to refine their ideas and transform them into functional solutions. Richmond provided continuous technical guidance and mentorship to help the students complete their projects and deepen their understanding of the development process.
The final presentations took place during the StudentPreneur Innovation Festival on March 6, 2026. Before the main event, a final hackathon session was held to enable participants to complete their projects.
Afterward, the two teams—Team Caretech, comprising four students from the University of Ghana and Accra Institute of Technology, and Team Oracle Zenux from Accra Technical University—presented their solution to a panel of judges and festival attendees. The presentations reflected the effort and progress the learners made during the bootcamp and demonstrated their growing confidence in applying digital tools to solve real-world problems.
Team Zenux from Accra Technical University emerged as the winning all-female team, earning recognition for their outstanding technical competencies in Oracle APEX. Their performance stood out for its strong problem‑solving approach, well‑structured implementation, and effective use of Oracle technologies to deliver a functional solution under intense time constraints. Their achievement was celebrated at the festival, held at the Accra Digital Centre.
Later, in recognition of a valued partnership, the Studentpreneur Africa Network presented Oracle Academy with a recognition award for its support and collaboration throughout the planning and execution of the Oracle Academy All-Female Hackathon.
Not a member? Join now. Learn more at academy.oracle.com. Link to publication: https://ela-newsportal.com/from-independence-to-innovation-inside-ghanas-studentpreneur-festival/