Lyftathon Kigali 2026: A Recap

We ran our very first Careerlyft hackathon in Kigali. We tagged it Lyftathon and honestly, it was all shades of awesome.

Our goal was to bring together developers, designers, product owners and more to build AI solutions for everyday life in Kigali.

Planning the Hackathon

Since this was our first hackathon in the community, one of the big decisions we had to make was the format. Two days or one? After a lot of back and forth, we went with a single day, with prizes of 1,000,000 RWF, 500,000 RWF, and 250,000 RWF for the top three teams.

We announced the hackathon on April 2nd, 2026, exactly a month out. In less than four days, we had over 90 teams (300+ developers) registered. That was the first sign that this was going to be something special.

The weeks that followed were packed with planning. Venue, getting a photographer, coordinating with teams, making sure everything was in order. We couldn't wait to watch the bright minds of Rwanda bring their ideas to life.

A BIG shoutout to Chakra UI for sponsoring the event. We really appreciate the support.

The Hackathon Day

Teams arrived early and we kicked things off with registrations. Each team brought two ideas and one was selected to build.

Once the ideas were locked in, people got to work...and that's where things got interesting.

Some teams came in knowing exactly what they wanted to build. Others were still figuring it out on the fly, changing direction, and going back and forth. I guess that's what comes with hackathons!

By 10.30am, building started for real. I could hear a lot of "wait, let's do it this way" and "no, that won't work". That kind of energy is one of the best parts of a hackathon if you ask me.

The Judges

We wanted judges who could give real, substantive feedback based on their own experiences. People who would challenge the teams, not just score them.

We were really glad to have these four on the panel:

• Segun Adebayo — Lead Software Engineer at Chakra UI
• Jacques Nyilinkindi — Head of Software Development at Boulette Proof
• Sharon Mutesi — Digital Marketing Lead at Bank of Kigali
• Brian Rubimbura — Tech Lead at Bank of Kigali

The judges had been moving through the room throughout the day, asking questions and pushing teams to think harder about what they were building. You could see the impact it had.

Umurava + Lunch

We also had Umurava come in to share with the builders, which was a really great addition to the day.

Not long after, it was time for lunch. And I have to mention this because the food was so good. Easily one of the highlights of the day 😄

The Final Stretch

Teams came back from lunch and there were about three hours left before demos. I could feel the anxiety in the room as some teams were still half way in their projects.

However, the hours ran so quickly and presentations started by 6.30pm

This part is always something special. You get to see what people actually managed to build from scratch in a single day. Some projects were polished, others were still rough around the edges, but all of them represented hours of real thinking and effort and that always comes through.

Winners

After all the presentations and demos, the judges scored each team across six criteria:

• Relevance to Kigali
• Use of AI
• Real-World Usability
• Product Quality
• Demo & Storytelling
• Innovation & Creativity

And when the scores were tallied, here's how it landed:

Wide Skills — Grand Champion (1,000,000 RWF)

Nukta Kab — Runner Up (500,000 RWF)

Grand Prize Only — Finalist (250,000 RWF)

Huge congratulations to all three teams and honestly to every single team that showed up and built something that day.

It was absolutely worth it.

Lyftathon 2.0 is coming. Are you ready?