Egypt will hold the final round of its national digital innovation competition “Digitopia” on Friday and Saturday (28–29 November), with 72 teams reaching the last stage to compete for prizes worth more than EGP 10m, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said on Monday.
More than 300 competitors will take part in the finals at Egypt Digital Innovation Centre in Giza. ICT Minister Amr Talaat is scheduled to attend Saturday’s closing ceremony, where he will announce the winners. The top prize is valued at EGP 1m.
Digitopia, launched this year, is the largest national competition of its kind, the ministry said. It attracted more than 25,000 innovators who formed around 6,500 teams from across Egypt.
The final round includes three tracks: software and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital arts and gaming. Competitors will contest awards across three age categories.
During the third phase of the contest, more than 700 teams worked for three weeks to turn their initial ideas into fulldigital prototypes. Teams received technical support through specialised workshops delivered by industry experts.
The ministry said participation spanned all governorates, with entrants ranging from school pupils to university students, recent graduates and start-ups. Age groups were classified symbolically as “Impact Explorer”, “Impact Maker”, “Impact Innovator” and “Impact Leader”.
More than 90 specialists in digital technologies and innovation are taking part in the judging panels.
The competition is organised under the supervision of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the National Telecommunications Institute, the Information Technology Institute and Egypt University of Informatics.
Partners include the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Huawei Egypt, Cisco Egypt, IT Valley, Telecom Egypt (WE), Vodafone Egypt, Orange Egypt, e& Egypt, YAT, EYouth and the WE Innovate programme.
