The federal government today kicked off JusticeTechNG 2025, the country’s first-ever national hackathon and accelerator program dedicated to justice innovation. The event runs from June 3 to 5 in Lagos and brings together developers, lawyers, technologists, civic activists, and entrepreneurs to co-create digital solutions addressing critical challenges in the justice sector.
The initiative, spearheaded by Fernandez Marcus-Obiene, Special Assistant to the President on Justice Sector Reform and ICT/Digital and Innovative Technology, aims to tackle issues such as court congestion, delayed access to justice, prisoner rehabilitation, and digital legal education through homegrown technology solutions.
“We’re building a pipeline of justice innovations that are locally grown, policy-aligned, and ready for real-world adoption,” said Marcus-Obiene. “If we want the justice system to work better, we must invest in the people building tools to fix it.”
From a competitive pool of 82 submissions, 20 finalist teams were selected by a panel of experts across law, technology, and development sectors. These teams will compete for a total prize pool of ₦22 million in cash and services, alongside structured mentorship and opportunities to pilot their solutions with government and civil society partners.
Following the hackathon, the top 10 teams will enter a month-long virtual accelerator program, culminating in a Demo Day where finalists will pitch their innovations to a distinguished panel including government officials, judges, investors, and development agencies.
The program is coordinated by a multi-disciplinary committee chaired by Abiola Jimoh, a legal technologist and policy strategist, who emphasized the initiative’s transformative potential: “This is not just a hackathon. It’s a coordinated national push to build scalable solutions that justice institutions can adopt and expand for real impact.”
JusticeTechNG represents a pioneering model of public-private-civic collaboration, placing technology at the heart of justice reform in Nigeria and potentially across Africa. The high-level advisory board includes senior judges, legal experts, tech entrepreneurs, and policy leaders, ensuring strategic alignment with national reform goals.
