Ten teams will be selected to build low-cost, offline-first traceability systems for smallholder export produce at the Harare Institute of Technology

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Registration for TEXPO 26 STEAM ON, the tertiary-level edition of Zimbabwe’s annual technology hackathon, closes tomorrow, 18 September 2026, so far with 57 teams registered from seven institutions across the country, and notable interest from as far afield as Tanzania. The event is hosted by the Technopreneurship Development Centre (TDC) at the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT), under the TEXPO Africa umbrella, and takes place 5 to 9 October 2026 at the Innovation Hub, HIT.

This year’s challenge, MOVE! Farm to Market, asks teams of up to three tertiary students to design a low-cost, offline-first data capture system, built on Raspberry Pi hardware, that gives smallholder farmers a credible evidence trail for export certification. The brief is anchored around Temba Moyo, a fictional smallholder farmer whose high-quality produce is repeatedly rejected or undervalued because he has no formal record of where or how it was grown. Teams design against real-world certification framework, GLOBALG.A.P. Primary Farm Assurance.

Entries will be evaluated against a research note, a farmer adoption and business model note, and a three-minute pitch video. The 10 successful teams will be notified during the week of 21 September 2026, and will build their solutions over four days before presenting to a judging panel on the final day, 9 October. Prizes include Raspberry Pi kits and potentially a place on the Cape Town Technology Immersion trip.

About TEXPO

TEXPO is Zimbabwe’s annual technology hackathon for young people, built on the principle that learners should build working solutions to real African problems using affordable hardware, rather than simply pitch ideas. Since its founding in 2023, TEXPO has tackled smart city infrastructure and gas detection (2023), vehicle heat-death prevention (2024), and the digitisation of Africa’s creative economy (2025). TEXPO STEAM ON extends this model to tertiary-level students, in partnership with the Technopreneurship Development Centre at the Harare Institute of Technology.

Event Details
Event: TEXPO 26 STEAM ON — MOVE! Farm to Market
Dates: 5 – 9 October 2026
Venue: Innovation Hub, Harare Institute of Technology
Registration deadline: 18 September 2026
Registrations received so far: 57 teams, 7 institutions nationally, plus interest from Tanzania
Successful teams notified: week of 21 September 2026
Registration: texpoafrica.com

Sponsors: Platinum — Telco Beyond. Gold — Strategic Outcomes, DHL. Supporting partners — My Afrika Magazine, World Food Programme, Horticultural Development Council.