Rise Networks launches AI for elections hackathon across Nigeria

Speaking at the launch in Abuja on Thursday, October 22, the organisation’s Chief Executive, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, a doctorate holder, said the programme would run in three phases and was open to all Nigerians 18 years and above.

She said the first phase would be a hackathon, a national innovation programme that would bring together young developers, researchers, students, entrepreneurs and technology innovators to develop responsible AI solutions to address real challenges in Nigeria’s electoral and civic information ecosystem.

“Whether you’re a software developer, elections expert, public policy analyst, journalist, or AI technologist, you are welcome to participate,” she said.

Akerele-Ogunsiji said the hackathon would close on November 12, after which finalists would be selected and supported by global technology partners including Meta, Microsoft, and Google, ahead of the grand finale in Lagos on December 16.

The second phase, she said, would establish an AI4Elections Development Hub, a physical world-class facility equipped with GPUs, microcontrollers, and advanced sensors.

She added that the hub would provide Nigerian developers the tools to build globally competitive hardware and software solutions but stressed that it would not interfere with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s infrastructure in the forthcoming elections.

The convener said the third phase would create an AI4Elections Community of Practice, bringing together Nigerians worldwide to contribute to electoral innovation.

“Elections belong to the people. They are not just a government or civil society conversation,” she noted, adding that the community would serve as a think tank to support INEC and government in co-creating credible, people-centred electoral processes.

While acknowledging the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (The ICIR) and other organisations as partners, Akerele-Ogunsiji said the Hackathon itself would cover five thematic tracks.

She outlined them as “Trustworthy electoral information and special intelligence, electoral data analysis and decision-making support, inclusive and multilingual civic technology, electoral cybersecurity and resilience, and election observation and citizen accountability.” She mentioned that an optional cross-cutting area would focus on climate resilience and environmental innovation.

Earlier, while emphasising inclusivity and diversity, Akerele-Ogunsiji noted that solutions must reach Nigerians across diverse communities and languages and emphasised the importance of strong cybersecurity standards to ensure Nigeria’s electoral data remains within national jurisdiction.

Also speaking, the Head of Information and Communication Technology at INEC, Lawrence Bayode, a doctorate holder, said the commission recognised that AI represents significant opportunities to improve electoral administration, which he said was why it had taken deliberate steps towards responsible AI adoption, including the establishment of an AI division within the commission’s ICT department as well as the development of an AI framework to guide responsible application in its operations.

Bayode explained that the commission was also exploring practical applications of AI in areas such as voter information services, electoral data management, operational efficiency and detection of disinformation and misinformation.

He described the deployment of AI in the election management system as an important area of innovation because it uses intelligent document processing to digitise polling unit result sheets and perform consistency checks between the figures entered on the BVAS and the scanned results before transmission.

“If the scanned form EC8a, which is the result, is consistent with the result entered on the machine electronically, then the system allows the result to be uploaded to IREV. But where we have discrepancies between what was entered electronically and the scanned results, then, that discrepancy has to be fixed before the result is allowed to be uploaded to the IREV. This is to ensure that the result we have on the IREV is the result that emanated from that polling unit, and also to improve accuracy and reduce human error and strengthen transparency,” he said.

He described the innovations as a demonstration of INEC moving from conversation around AI to practical implementation while maintaining human oversight, accountability and appropriate safeguards.

While commending Rise Networks, he said the AI4Election hackathon creates an opportunity to harness the creativity of young Nigerians in addressing real electoral challenges.

“We welcome innovations that can improve voter education, expand accessibility for persons with disabilities, breach language barriers, strengthen information integrity and make election information more accessible to citizens,” he said.

He, however, added that innovation must never come at the expense of electoral security, operational stability or public confidence.

Meanwhile, Meta’s Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa, Sade Dada, said Meta had employed a strategy of removing, reducing and informing to counter disinformation.

“What this means is that we are removing content that causes any harm or has the risk of interfering with people’s ability to vote, reducing the distribution of false claims so they don’t go viral and informing and giving people context through our independent fact-checking networks,” she said.

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