What happened at
DIRA Tech Fest 2026?
DIRA Tech Fest 2026, held from 27 to 29 March 2026 in Bamenda, Northwest Region of Cameroon, was the first edition of what is designed to become the region's defining annual innovation and digital entrepreneurship event. Organised entirely by DIRA (Digital Era), the youth innovation branch of ASWEDO (Aspired Women Empowerment and Development Organisation), and executed by a core team of eight young people with no external institutional funding, the event delivered outcomes that exceeded projections across every measurable dimension.
Across three days, DIRA Tech Fest 2026 delivered a structured digital skills training programme for 108 young people across 10 specialised tracks, a public technology festival and government summit attended by over 1,000 participants, and a business development exhibition that provided 45 enterprises with a free, structured platform to promote their products and services to the largest curated audience of institutional leaders, investors, and members of the public assembled in the Northwest Region in recent memory.
The training programme produced ten cross-functional team projects in 48 hours, with five advancing to a public pitch competition judged in front of 750+ attendees inside Cathedral Hall. The grand prize, 25,000 XAF, was awarded to SWMS (Smart Waste Management System), a digital platform for coordinating intelligent waste collection in Bamenda. Total prizes distributed across four teams: 70,000 XAF.
The event was further distinguished by the official public launch of DIRA's flagship product, DHUB, a mobile housing marketplace designed to eliminate the fraud, opacity, and inefficiency that characterise the rental housing market in Bamenda. DHUB is the first digital product built, deployed, and publicly launched by a Bamenda-based technology company for the Northwest Region market.
Key Facts
Training & Orientation
One hundred and eight young people, secondary school students, university students, and recent graduates from across Bamenda and the wider Northwest Region, gathered at LTC Hall for the opening day of an intensive two-day digital skills and product development programme. From the moment participants arrived, it was clear this was not a conventional workshop. Ice-breaker activities and group games established a culture of energy, openness, and collaborative engagement that would carry through both training days.
The 9 Training Tracks
Each track represented one functional department of a technology company. No prior experience required, all tracks were accessible to beginners.
48-Hour Build Sprint
Day 2 was the culmination of the training experience. All 108 trainees, now constituted as ten product development teams, returned to LTC Hall for an intensive build sprint in which everything acquired on Day 1 was applied to the development of a working product or high-fidelity prototype. Track trainers transitioned from instructors to mentors, circulating between teams to unblock technical challenges and raise the quality of every submission.
Public Festival & Tech Summit
March 29, 2026 marked the realisation of the event's central ambition: to bring together, in a single venue in Bamenda, a gathering of sufficient scale, diversity, and institutional weight to serve as the visible founding moment of the Northwest Region's digital economy. Cathedral Hall and its outdoor spaces filled with more than 1,000 participants, a convergence of government, business, civil society, academic institutions, youth, media, and the general public that the region had not previously witnessed at a technology-focused event.
Ten teams. 48 hours.
Four winners.
Five finalist teams took the stage at Cathedral Hall before 750+ attendees. Each delivered a 3-minute pitch followed by a 2-minute Q&A with the panel of judges.
SWMS, Smart Waste Management System
A digital platform designed to coordinate intelligent waste collection, tracking, and recycling in Bamenda. SWMS connects households and businesses with waste collection services, provides real-time data on collection schedules, and creates a structured incentive framework for recycling participation. Judges cited the product's direct relevance to a documented urban infrastructure challenge, the clarity of the team's solution architecture, and the quality of the live demonstration.
EduSync
An educational content platform designed to connect learners with structured, locally relevant digital learning materials and qualified mentors. EduSync addresses the gap between formal education and practical skill acquisition in the Northwest Region.
Vendly
A digital marketplace platform enabling local vendors and small businesses in Bamenda to list, promote, and transact with a verified local customer base, addressing the informality and visibility barriers that limit the growth of micro-enterprises in the region.
Boloconnect
A platform connecting informal job seekers to those who need their services, addressing the significant gap between available youth labour and local service demand in Bamenda and the wider Northwest Region.
Four winning teams received mentorship from DIRA for legal registration, growth, and integration into the Bamenda Tech Startup Coalition, officially seeded at DIRA Tech Fest 2026.
"Building a Digital Economy
in the Northwest Region"
Moderated by Mr. Reinhard Nebassi. Six senior institutional voices on one stage. 750+ in the audience at Cathedral Hall, Bamenda.
Panel Composition
Ministry of Scientific Research & Innovation (MINRESI)
Ministry of Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy & Handicrafts (MINPMESSA)
NFC Bank
FN FOREX Academy
The Audience
Over 750 registered attendees were seated inside Cathedral Hall for the panel discussion, many of them young people hearing senior government officials address the subject of technology, investment, and youth entrepreneurship in this setting for the first time. The panel carried both practical and symbolic weight.
Themes Discussed
Barriers facing digital entrepreneurs Role of financial institutions Government policy & digital economy University & private sector partnerships DIRA Tech Fest as ecosystem model Concrete panelist commitments
The Launch of DHUB
The first digital product built and publicly launched by a Bamenda-based technology company for the Northwest Region.
DHUB, Bamenda's Housing Marketplace
At 3:45 PM on Day 3, the DIRA founding team took the stage for the most historically significant moment of the event: the official public introduction of DIRA as an organisation and the live demonstration of DHUB before an audience of more than 750 people.
DHUB is a mobile housing marketplace that connects tenants directly with verified landlords in Bamenda, eliminating the fraudulent agency practices, weeks-long search processes, and lack of price transparency that affect tens of thousands of students and young workers in the city each year.
- Live property listings updated in real time
- Direct tenant-to-landlord connection, no middlemen
- Transparent pricing and property information
- First digital product built by a Bamenda-based tech company for the Northwest Region
- Generated immediate follow-up interest from investors, landlords, and student groups
45 Enterprises.
Free platform. Real
outcomes.
Every exhibiting business received free, professionally allocated space and direct access to government delegates, investors, and over 1,000 members of the public.
The business exhibition was conceived not as a peripheral market but as a fully integrated, structured business development initiative. The participation of MTN Cameroon alongside emerging local startups and micro-enterprises created a multi-scale exhibition environment rarely available to small businesses in the region, a single venue in which a market trader, a tech startup, and a national telecommunications company occupied adjacent spaces and engaged the same institutional guests.
The Ministry of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MINPMESSA) publicly committed to support and promote all businesses present at the event.
Sectors Represented
Common Questions
About DIRA Tech Fest 2026
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Dive deeper into the moments, the people, and the projects that defined DIRA Tech Fest 2026.