LEARN MORE ABOUT FACEBOOK’S CONTEST IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Facebook is challenging all developers in the Middle East and Africa to join in on the Bots for Messenger Developer Challenge and create innovative bots. Facebook’s culture thrives in promoting new innovations and new platforms and the contest is in alignment with the Corporation’s commitment to promoting this culture in Africa and the Middle East through the provision of empowering tools for growth, monetization, and commoditization.

Developers can enter the contest in teams of two to three people to create bots in three categories: gaming and entertainment, productivity and utility and social good. Entires will also be categorized by region: the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa.

There are prizes for the sixty teams (10 in each category in each region) that will make it to the final. These prizes are a Gear VR, mobile phones, one hour of mentorship tools from FbStart, a program designed by Facebook to help early-stage mobile start-ups. In addition, any student teams that make it to the final will also receive 2,000 dollars. (Students should register with their government accredited email accounts)

Each of the three runner up teams in each region for each category will win 10,000 dollars and three months of mentorship courtesy of Facebook.

The winning teams in each category and each region will receive a 20,000 dollar prize and their months of Facebook mentorship.

Entry is already open; the deadline to enter the competition is the 28th of April at 11:59:59 pm GMT. The finalists will subsequently be announced on the 19th of May at 9:00 am GMT. Winners will be announced a month later, on the 19th of June.

To Enter the contest or for rules on the competition click here.

Join the Facebook page for the competition and stay up to date.