Drawing in 754 registered participants from across Africa, HackOps 1.0 not only delivered on its promise to challenge developers to solve real-world problems but also demonstrated the potential of PipeOps as a deployment-first platform bridging the DevOps skills gap across the continent.

While participants brought energy, innovation, and determination, the success of HackOps 1.0 was made possible in part by a powerful panel of expert judges, each selected for their deep domain knowledge and experience in emerging technologies.

These individuals played a critical role in evaluating the over 150 submitted projects and selecting the top 25 teams that competed in the final round held in Lagos. 

Judges Brought the Bar of Excellence

The judging panel was strategically curated to mirror the diversity of the tech ecosystem and the hackathon’s core tracks: Michael Mekuleyi, Adora Nwodo, and Jeremy Brockett brought their deep cloud and infrastructure expertise to the DevOps & Cloud Engineering track, evaluating scalability, CI/CD practices, and deployment efficiency. Olatunji Fagbore, a leading voice in AI and IoT product management, judged solutions applying machine learning, data science, and embedded systems.

Cynthia Chisom, Samuel Ogbonyomi, and Jadesola Akinnusoye judged the Startup and Product Strategy track, assessing business viability, product-market fit, and user strategy. Abdullateef Abdul, General Counsel at Bumpa and Managing Partner at Goldlex Legal, provided legal oversight, reviewing submissions for regulatory compliance and IP protection.

Leke Ayodele and Ewere Diagboya led the judging on community growth and developer relations, focusing on open-source visibility, UI/UX quality, and user onboarding.

Oluwaleke Fakorede, CTO of Insomnia Labs and Co-founder of GoWagr, served as the sole judge, bringing his experience to the Blockchain Engineering track.

With years of experience building on protocols like Ethereum and Solana, Oluwaleke evaluated decentralized applications, smart contract architecture, and Web3 innovations.

His selection was crucial in a track with one of the rarest but most technically demanding skill sets.

Judges were chosen based on their excellence and experience in their respective fields. Each judge assessed projects, bringing their years of experience to the forefront and using a rubric tailored to their track, ensuring objectivity while maintaining high technical standards.

Real-World Problems, Real-World Impact

Participants were challenged to build solutions in five core sectors: healthcare, finance, education, project management, and travel and hospitality, using emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, etc.

Notably, over 60% of projects focused on healthcare and finance, with the top three teams (Bendan, Medix, and Isis) delivering standout innovations in medical records, AI-driven diagnostics, and health data management.

The judging team’s experience proved instrumental in identifying not just functional projects, but scalable and impactful ones.

A Platform for What’s Next

HackOps 1.0 wasn’t just about prizes and prototypes—it was about building confidence in the African developer ecosystem and offering a practical, scalable alternative to cloud deployment through PipeOps.

With over 36,000 CI/CD deployments, 714 vCPUs, and 3.6TB of server resources spun up, HackOps didn’t just test developers—it accelerated them.

As the PipeOps team plans for HackOps 2.0, one thing is clear: the bar has been set—and the judges helped build it.

FlexJobs, a trusted guide when it comes to remote work, has released a comprehensive report outlining the career fields and jobs that are embracing this work-from-anywhere revolution. With insights gleaned from a vast database of job postings, this report will help you stay well-prepared in the remote work sector.

Not all fields have embraced the remote work revolution equally. Certain industries, however, have emerged as clear frontrunners, offering opportunities for those seeking career flexibility. Take a look at these top job roles:

• Computer & IT: From software development and data analysis to IT security and network administration, the tech sector and remote work are highly intertwined.
• Accounting & Finance: From crunching numbers to managing financial reports, accounting and finance professionals are increasingly finding their rhythm in remote roles.
• Marketing: Whether you’re a whiz at content creation or a social media expert, the marketing world offers a variety of remote opportunities to unleash your creative and analytical skills.
• Medical & Health: Beyond the field of direct patient care, the healthcare industry has a wide range of remote-friendly roles in areas like medical billing, transcription, and research.
• Project Management: From keeping complex projects on track to streamlining workflows, project management professionals are in high demand across various industries, often with the privilege of working from anywhere.

The Most Sought-After Roles:

But what about specific job titles? Which remote positions are generating the most buzz and offering the most promising career paths? Here’s a peek at the top 10:

1. Accountant: Keep the financial engine running with careful analysis and accurate reporting – all from the comfort of your home office.
2. Executive Assistant: Provide invaluable support to senior executives and scale administrative tasks with efficiency, making remote work an ideal setting for your organisational expertise.
3. Financial Analyst: Being an expert in financial data, crunching numbers, and offering insights to drive informed decisions, all while enjoying the flexibility of remote work.
4. Product Manager: Shape the future of products, overseeing their development and launch, with the freedom to work remotely and leverage your strategic thinking from anywhere.
5. Customer Service Representative: Be the voice of the company and resolve customer queries with a smile, making remote work a perfect fit for your communication skills and empathy.
6. Software Engineer: Write code and build software solutions that power the digital world, all while enjoying the autonomy and focus that remote work can offer.
7. Customer Success Manager: Ensure customer satisfaction and nurture lasting relationships, using your remote platform to connect with clients and advocate for their needs.
8. Accounting Manager: Oversee the financial operations of a team or department, maintaining accuracy and compliance, with the added flexibility of remote work.
9. Product Designer: Bring ideas to life and shape the user experience of products, leveraging your creativity and design skills, often in the comfort of your own design studio.
10. Writer: Captivate audiences with your words, crafting content across various mediums, utilising the focus and solitude that remote work provides to stimulate your storytelling talent.

This is just a glimpse into the numerous remote works available. Opportunities are numerous in countless other fields, from human resources and education to legal services and creative industries. With technology continually bringing about unseen possibilities, it is obvious that remote work careers are truly limitless.

Adekunle, a fellow of the Society, takes over from the immediate past ES, Mr. Iyiola Ayoola.

Adesegun Adekunle is a professionally qualified Computer Scientist with over 20 years of variegated hands-on professional experience, spanning from technical to Managerial functions, supported by technical and managerial development certifications.

In his role as Executive Secretary, Mr. Adesegun Adekunle assumes responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day administration of NCS’s strategy implementation and programmes management, working closely with the National Executive Council, President, and staff to continue to meet the objectives of the Society.

Professor Adesina Sodiya, President of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), welcomed Adekunle’s appointment after a rigorous process.

He said that the Executive Secretary’s role includes many administrative supports to the organization, especially to ensure that professionals have all the resources they needed from the secretariat.

Adesegun Job Adekunle:

Adesegun was a big Data Analyst at TC Resources Technology, UK. He has working experience in Project Management, Scrum Master, and Machine Learning Capability at TC Resources Centre.

He was part of a team that developed a final project on a website.  Among the Team – WAZOBIA B that carry out the project on CO2 emissions in the Southwest states of Nigeria as well as providing projections on what the next 10 years will look like for these states if the current trend continues.

He worked as Head of the Cloud Applications Support Team at Choice Clouds Synergy Ltd, Lagos. He also worked as Head of IT Operations at Victsoft Technical Services, Lagos. He served as a Systems Manager, a senior management position at Nigeria Distilleries Ltd., (The Foremost Distillers) Sango Ota, Ogun State for several years where he was given the best senior staff award, the Chairman Division, and a long service staff award.

Adesegun Adekunle has a Masters in Information Communication Technology from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta.

He has vast knowledge in Agile Scrum Master, Big Data Analytics, SQL, Python, Project Management, Machine Learning, Server Management and Business Analyst.

He has a Certification in Big Data Analytics from National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. He also has ITIL certification from Axelos Global Best Practice (EXIN).

Some of his Professional memberships are:

• Fellow Nigeria Computer Society (FNCS)
• Member Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN)
• Member Information Technology Systems & Security Professional (ITSSP)

He is the current Executive Secretary of our great Society-Nigeria Computer Society.

Adesegun is happily married and blessed with Children.

The appointment is with immediate effect.

In the shadow of the pandemic, while some students in Nigeria were unable to attend school in any form, others had to quickly adapt to the new reality of online learning and in some cases through traditional media, radio and TV.

Assisted by the teaching community, they submitted assignments on time, met attendance targets, problem solved and ensured parent and teacher satisfaction.

In many ways, these students are the first generation of workforce in decades that found its way out of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic without any formal training in managing projects.

The pandemic which felt like a temporary inconvenience is a stark reality we will confront daily in how we live, work and play.

Its biggest and irreversible impact has been on the world of work. Change is inevitable, thanks to the many technological advancements in recent times. However, its arrival was certainly accelerated, and under the spectre of the pandemic, it was a landslide.

The kind of careers that Nigeria’s Class of 2021 may have envisioned, has shifted due to the pandemic. The companies on their wish list are already reconfiguring to find new ways to stay relevant and deliver new products and services.

These radical shifts simply mean two things, the career you choose today needs to keep up with the changes of tomorrow, and professionals, including the youth, need to learn new skills to keep up as well.

As companies emerge from the pandemic, they are quickly realising that buzzwords like lean and agile don’t just apply to IT departments.

Companies want to hire changemakers, not just job seekers, who have a learning mindset and can pivot when needed. Therefore, it is critical for Nigerians to harness project management skills and secure their futures amidst the pandemic.

Globally, the value of project-oriented economic activity over the decade is likely to reach $20 trillion (₦820 trillion).

Project Management Institute (PMI’s) Talent Gap report predicts that the number of jobs requiring project management-oriented skills from economic growth and retirement rates will create the global need for 25 million new project professionals by 2030. Here in Sub-Saharan Africa, we will witness a 40% growth in project management-oriented employment, the largest globally over this period.

Speaking at the recently concluded COP26 Summit, President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria needed a cumulative $1.5 trillion over the next decade to achieve an appreciable level of the National Infrastructure Stock for which his administration had established a clear legal and regulatory framework for private financing of infrastructure.

The President welcomed the G7 countries for its ground-breaking plan to mobilise hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment for low and middle-income countries.

Author and leading expert on project management Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, writes in his new book that unlike businesses in the 20th century that relied on advances in efficiency and productivity to drive value, today the focus is on projects.

Managing the organisation around projects drives short-term performance and long-term value creation, through organisational transformations, faster development of products and quicker adoption of new technologies.

The pandemic has vastly intensified that need. The pressure on companies has never been greater to remodel their business to fit changing requirements. To leverage this opportunity, they will need a new approach to project management and a fast recipe for skills development.

In The Project Economy, talent managers will seek skills and behaviours needed to succeed in a world that is increasingly driven around projects.

Power skills like empathy, collaboration, and communication will be non-negotiable and can make your resume stand out. Technical skills like decision making framework methodology, earned value and cost management that ensure projects are delivered on time and budget are easily learnable.

Some of the foundational skills necessary for a successful and rewarding career in project management can come from anywhere, even from the pandemic as noted earlier.

There are several online resources available on Project Management Institute (PMI’s) website to test one’s aptitude for managing projects including the free PMI KICK OFF.

The Nigerian economy could well use some of the skills the youth displayed during the pandemic as it embarks on megaprojects to spur recovery. You might even turn the skills you thought you never had into a successful career.