Happy New Year !
I hope you enjoyed the Holidays and that this new year will be kind to you.
As we continue this new year, I want to share a memorable project from December 2024: my team's submission to the Africa's Talking (AT) Hackathon.
The theme was "Clean Energy Solutions" and we developed E-Points – a loyalty rewards application for electric bike riders. The app rewards riders with points for each trip, redeemable for airtime through AT's API.Here was our tech stack of choice:
Technical Stack
Next.js (client/server rendering)
PrismaDB ORM
NeonDB (PostgreSQL)
AT Airtime API
Defending my Design Choices
Here is a quick overview of the entire system:
image by me & Excalidraw
How it works:
For Riders:
Sign up and login
Generate a unique sharing code
Share code with passengers
For Passengers:
Sign up and login
Enter rider's code
Accumulate points
Redeem points for airtime
Technical Challenge
While implementing the AT Airtime API, I discovered it required a separate Node.js backend rather than Next.js server routes. Thankfully, AT's clear documentation made the integration straightforward.
Put you money where your code is:
Here is a snippet showing the Node.js module to connecting to the AT API:
You can view the whole project in my Github.
Final Words …
I really enjoyed the hackathon. Our submission got 4th place 🎉
In general, the AT community is very vibrant. It hosts regular events, from monthly hackathons to community meetups. Be sure to check out their page to join the innovation.😊
Till the next post, keep hacking away!