Team “SYNE” has been declared the winner of the AI Inclusive for Learning Hackathon Challenge, organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Startup Lab in collaboration with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and other partners.
The three-day competition, held in Accra from Wednesday, November 12 to Friday, November 14, 2025, saw ten teams compete across ideation, development, and presentation stages. Team SYNE was selected to develop an AI-powered platform that supports the new Ghanaian Sign Language Dictionary, aiming to reduce communication barriers among children with disabilities.
The 2025 Hackathon, themed “AI for Inclusive Learning,” challenged participants to leverage artificial intelligence and assistive technologies to create solutions that are accessible, user-friendly, accurate, scalable, sustainable, and culturally sensitive.
“All 10 groups presented and defended their platforms before a panel of judges and stakeholders,” the organisers noted. “Team SYNE emerged as the overall winner, receiving a prize of $2,600.”
Joseph Du, UNICEF’s Chief of Education, praised the participants for their innovative apps and highlighted that future editions of the challenge would tackle broader social issues affecting children’s well-being, including education, health, and social protection.
“In the future, UNICEF will introduce more issues in the social sector, which will impact children’s wellbeing,” he said.
Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), also a partner of the hackathon, expressed commitment to supporting promising teams. William Ofori Boadu, Head of Digital Ecosystems and Embedded Finance at GCB, said the bank is eager to integrate winning ideas into its digital platforms.
“GCB is really interested in taking this beyond ideas into actual implementation. We want to solve real-life problems and provide platforms for teams to showcase their solutions. Some ideas may even be adopted into our mobile app,” he added.
Other collaborators for the challenge included MEST Africa and DevCongress, further strengthening the initiative’s aim to build an inclusive future for all learners in Ghana.
