1
1st place
₦200,000
Africa Is Building
AIB Ship 2026
Build a real product, get it into people's hands, and see where it goes.
A 4-week product-building challenge for developers, designers, and founders solving real problems with software built in Africa.
By registering, you agree to participate in AIB Ship and receive updates about milestones and submissions.
Dates
Sep 1 – Sep 30
Ends in
29d17h54m4s
Registration
7 developers
Pick a problem people actually experience, build with tools from the Africa Is Building ecosystem, deploy a working product, put it in front of real users, gather feedback along the way, and present what you shipped in a live demo.
If you can build it, you should be able to sell it.
₦450,000 in prizes
2
2nd place
₦150,000
3
3rd place
₦100,000
★
Community Pick
₦25,000
Meet the teams supporting builders throughout AIB Ship.
One Million Squares
A million tiny pieces of the internet.
One Million Squares is a social experiment where people and businesses can claim a piece of a 1,000,000-square digital wall for ₦100 and use it to showcase what they're building.
Claim your spot, showcase what you're building, discover other builders, and become part of the wall.
Sabilytics
Ship with signal.
Sabilytics helps you understand how people, search engines, and AI discover your website. Track real usage, see what changed, and get clear guidance on what to do next.
As you build, use those insights to improve your product and make every iteration count.
- 1
Build
Pick a real problem people in Africa experience and build a working product using tools from the Africa Is Building ecosystem.
- Health, education, finance, logistics, creator tools. Any sector works.
- Use at least 3 AIB products. Essentials fit common build needs — choose them when your project relies on them.
- Solo builders welcome; teams can have up to 4 people
Participating products
Build with tools from the Africa Is Building ecosystem and unlock partner perks.
Understand how people, search engines and AI discover your website.
Insight-first analytics with a generous limit grace period
- If you exceed your plan limit, tracking continues but reads are paused until you upgrade
- We keep collecting data for 2 months after you go over limit
- On the 3rd month without an upgrade, tracking stops
Africa-first cloud deployment for developers.
Africa-first deployment with exclusive AIB Ship perks
- Plus subscription worth ₦7,000 for the first 5 teams
- Free .cv domain for every participant
AI cloud infrastructure for production apps.
Instant Access
No waiting list. Sign up with GitHub and get instant API access to all major LLMs through one gateway.
Impress Judges
Show real-time observability and security logs. Demonstrate that your hackathon project is production-ready.
$50 Free Credits
Get free credits to burn on tokens.
- Visit website
The communications API for Africa.
- Visit website
Uploads, storage, and delivery from one API.
- Visit website
Open-source tunnels from localhost to the internet.
- 2
Ship
Deploy your MVP, integrate analytics, and submit weekly milestones through the AIB Ship workspace.
- Week 1: Problem · Week 2: First ship · Week 3: Real users · Week 4: Final ship
- Drafts can be edited; submissions are final once locked
- Your project page goes live as soon as you create it
- 3
Sell
Present your product live, gather community support, and show evidence that real people used what you built.
- Submit a demo video and pitch in Week 4
- Share your public project page and gather Community Pick support
- Finalists present live on YouTube. If you can build it, you should be able to sell it
A rough guide to what happens each week. Jump in at any point.
- 1
Week 1 · Find the problem
Form your team, define the problem, identify target users, and choose your African stack.
- 2
Week 2 · First ship
Deploy your MVP on Pxxl, connect your stack, and submit your first working build.
- 3
Week 3 · Real users
Put the product in front of real people, collect analytics data, and iterate from feedback.
- 4
Week 4 · Final ship
Polish the product, record your demo, prepare your pitch, and submit your final milestone.
- 1
Deploy a completed project with a public URL before Week 4 submission.
- 2
At least 3 Africa Is Building products should be part of your stack.
- 3
Include a demo video and GitHub repo in your final submission.
- 4
Present your project during the final YouTube livestream if selected as an AIB Ship finalist.
- Open to builders anywhere. You can lead one project per AIB Ship edition and co-participate on others.
- All work must be original and built during the AIB Ship challenge period.
- Use at least 3 AIB-listed products thoughtfully. Quality over checkbox ticking.
- Project pages are public immediately; only submitted milestone content is shown publicly.
- Be respectful. Follow the Africa Is Building community guidelines.