Propelling Technological Innovation In Ghana
The winners of the inaugural Accra Mobility Prediction Hackathon, organized by Zindi Africa and powered by Yango Group, a global technology company specializing in daily services, have been revealed. The event took place at The University of Ghana, Legon Campus on November 23rd, 2024.
Over 200 data science students and technology enthusiasts participated, both in person and virtually, in a competition that tasked them with developing advanced machine learning models to predict average traffic speeds in Accra at different times of the day.
Their goal was to address practical transportation issues highlighted by Yango’s data science team. Following the success of similar events in Zambia, DR Congo, and Mozambique, the top three performers, who presented the most effective solutions, received monetary rewards while other top performing students received prizes.
Speaking on the impact of the Accra Mobility Prediction Hackathon, Mr. Richard Okyere-Fosu , The Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), under The Ministry of Communications and Digitalization, Republic of Ghana, expressed his admiration for the initiative and urged many other private sector institutions to follow Yango’s footsteps.
He said, “This initiative represents a significant milestone in our collective efforts to harness the power of technology and data science to improve urban mobility in Ghana. We can see a serious collaboration between industry and academia to actually solve real-life issues. Another pillar of the new ICT policy is digital entrepreneurship and we are looking to also support these bright talents. We want to commend Yango and Zindi for this initiative and encourage them to do more to promote technology and digitalization in Ghana”
The maiden edition of the Accra Mobility Hackathon witnessed a high involvement of females with 32 women, making up 16% of the total number of participants. The top-performing model in the hackathon achieved an RMSE score of 1.42, demonstrating a highly accurate prediction with an average error rate of just 1.42%.
Dr Nii Longdon Sowah, Senior Lecturer at the Computer Engineering Department of the University of Ghana, also shared his excitement about the turn out of the hackathon and encouraged further collaborations like this in the near future.
He stated ‘’The Accra Mobility Hackathon saw a strong turnout, with students from over 5 universities in Ghana taking part. Participants came from the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ashesi University, Central University, Accra Technical University, and Ghana Communication Technology University. Many of the students were new to hackathons and found the experience eye-opening. Working alongside their peers, they gained valuable skills in tackling real-world issues in real time. Looking ahead, we are excited about the possibility of future collaborations with Yango and Zindi.’’
Meet The Winners
Ronny Polle took the top spot for his cutting-edge machine learning model while Emmanuel Kwamesekyi and Offei Bekoe took second and third place respectively for their innovative approaches to tackling the city’s traffic congestion issues. The undergraduate prize went to Duke Kojo Kongo of the University of Ghana for his impressive contribution to the competition.
Tom Ofonime, Country Manager for Yango Ride in Ghana, also hinted at Yango’s vision for Technological advancement in the market.
“Yango’s services are built on cutting-edge technology. Yango is a technology company first and foremost, driven by creators, data scientists, and STEM enthusiasts. This challenge is particularly important because travel time prediction is at the heart of what Yango does. Predicting taxi trip times accurately is crucial for ensuring a reliable service. Accurate ETAs mean happier customers, more efficient routes, and optimal driver allocation — all of which enhance users’ experiences. I’m excited to share my enthusiasm for geospatial data analytics. We believe some of the students will continue exploring the world of urban mobility after such a unique learning experience.” – he said.
This year’s Hackathon builds on a number of technology and educational corporate social responsibility programs previously organized by the company.
The Yango Education Program, in particular, offered hundreds of Ghanaians free access to courses on data analytics in Python and SQL. Moving forward, Yango intends to launch and enhance more meaningful technology and educational initiatives in Ghana in the upcoming years.
