Four Nigerian Teams Selected as Finalists for Facebook’s Bots For Messenger Developer Challenge

Facebook has selected 60 finalists from over 1000 entries it received from across the Middle East and Africa for the Bots for Messenger Developer Challenge. The challenge is a contest to recognise and reward developers who create the most innovative new bots on Messenger.

Developers, in teams of up to three people, were invited to create bots in three categories: gaming and entertainment; productivity and utility; and social good.

The 60 finalist teams (10 per category in Middle East/North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa) each won a Gear VR and mobile phone, one hour of Facebook mentorship, and tools and services from FbStart, a Facebook program designed to help early stage mobile start-ups build and grow their bots. All student teams who made it to the finals won an additional $2,000.

Nigerian finalists who made the list include Laide Bot (student submission), Headwork, Hyper-CV, and Baba Politricks.

Facebook will contact the finalists and connect them with a mentor. They will need to resubmit their bots before midnight (GMT) on June 2 to qualify to win. For each region, three runner-up teams (one from each category) will win $10,000 and three months of Facebook mentorship. For each region, three winning teams (one from each category) will win $20,000 and three months of Facebook mentorship.

See the 60 finalist teams and their bots below (student teams are marked with *):

Middle East and North Africa

Games & Entertainment

Egypt: Harry Botter*

Egypt: Tic Tac Toe

Jordan: HiiTBee*
Morocco: BoTrolls
Morocco: Gamebot
Morocco: Trivoxx
Palestine: Mamobot*
Egypt: MysteryBotUAE: Playalong Live

Productivity & Utility

Egypt: Adam (9 months)
Egypt: The HireHunt Bot
Egypt: Hangouts Assistant
Egypt: MathHook*
Egypt: Scientebot
Jordan: Evii (Heroes Burgers & Wings)
Lebanon: Blink My Car
Morocco: Salaat First
Saudi Arabia: WeCook*
UAE: Converter

Social Good

Algeria: Midwife Bot
Egypt: ChefBot*
Egypt: Blood Bot
Egypt: Mr. Ink
Egypt: Lancerbot*
Egypt: Mujeeb-Marj3*
Egypt: HarassMap Bot
Tunisia: nTalk
UAE: Social Perks
UAE: Yom

Sub-Saharan Africa

Games & Entertainment

Cameroon: quizzcoin
Ghana: Arista Bot*
Ghana: Known Fact
Madagascar: Gifter Bot
Madagascar: Smart Game Grimoire Bot
Nigeria: Laide Bot*
Senegal: Wobot Multilingual Words Games
Uganda: Mamas’ League
Uganda: Nutshell Bot
Zimbabwe: Sphinx The Game

Productivity & Utility

Benin: Boolo
Ethiopia: Selam Habesha
Ethiopia: LangBot
Kenya: EatOut
Kenya: Sign Language Dictionary Bot
Kenya: BridelyBuzz
Madagascar: Alfred Bot
Nigeria: Headwork
Nigeria: Hyper-cv
Zimbabwe: PopTime Bot – Movie Companion*

Social Good

Cameroon: cuisto*
Kenya: mytichaabot
Kenya: Mingo
Kenya: Uchaguzi Kenya*
Nigeria: Baba politricks
Senegal: EmergencyBot
Senegal: Botfoot*
South Africa: Poli*
Tanzania: Wedding Planner Bot
Uganda: DaktariHealth

Emeka Afigbo, Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships for the Middle East and Africa said:

Facebook grew out of a hacker culture and thrives by promoting innovation on new platforms. That’s why we launched the Bots for Messenger Challenge, with the aim of rewarding entrepreneurs and developers for harnessing the power of bots to create amazing new services and apps.

We were overwhelmed to receive more than 1,000 entries over two and a half months for the Bots for Messenger Challenge from developers and entrepreneurs across the Middle East and Africa—each one of them solving a problem in an inventive way or enriching the lives of its target user.