She Code Africa and technology company Apify have launched a programme designed to help women developers across Africa build and commercialise digital products addressing practical problems on the continent.
The Apify × SCA BuildHer Hackathon 2026, organised under the theme “Ship and Earn Africa,” will focus on giving participants practical experience creating web-scraping and automation tools that can subsequently be published and monetised through the Apify Store.
The announcement was issued through Techpoint Africa’s Brand Press platform.
From Coding to Commercial Products
The programme seeks to address a challenge facing many technology developers: turning technical skills and prototypes into commercially viable products.
Participants will develop what Apify describes as “Actors” — cloud programmes designed to perform web automation and data-related tasks.
Rather than ending with a demonstration project, developers will have an opportunity to publish their tools through a marketplace where they can potentially earn revenue from users.
That introduces a business component to the programme, combining software development with product commercialisation.
Lagos Hosts Demo Day
The virtual onboarding and development session is scheduled for September 24, followed by an in-person Demo Day and awards ceremony in Lagos on September 25.
Teams will present their products before external judges and representatives of Apify, with selected finalists moving into the final presentation stage.
The three leading teams are expected to receive $700, $500 and $300, respectively, while members of the top 10 teams will receive credits for using the Apify platform.
The monetary awards are relatively modest compared with traditional startup funding rounds, but the programme’s wider proposition is to give developers a route for converting software tools into income-generating products.
Developer Economy Expands
The initiative reflects a broader change in Africa’s technology workforce.
Software developers no longer have to depend exclusively on traditional employment to monetise their skills. Digital marketplaces, software-as-a-service products, APIs, automation tools and global freelance platforms increasingly allow developers to sell products or services beyond their domestic markets.
For Nigerian developers, that model can provide access to international customers while creating products around local challenges.
The programme is particularly focused on expanding those opportunities among women, who remain underrepresented across several segments of the technology industry.
Its commercial impact will ultimately depend on whether products emerging from the hackathon can progress beyond prototypes and attract sustained users.
But the partnership demonstrates how Nigeria’s technology ecosystem is increasingly focusing not only on teaching people to code, but also on giving developers pathways to build, distribute and monetise technology products.
