The Campus Hardware Challenge
Build Nigeria 2026 — rules
Teams of 1–4 students spend six weeks building a hardware product someone will pay for. The most commercially relevant build wins, announced on a livestream on 19 December.
Who can enter
- Every team member must be currently enrolled at a Nigerian university, polytechnic or college of education, on a degree, ND, HND or NCE programme.
- Teams of 1 to 4. One team per person. Members may come from different institutions; the team is listed under its lead’s institution.
- Registration is free. To compete for prizes, your team needs ₦25,000 of parts from Microscale between you by Sunday 1 November — parts a six-week build needs anyway. Purchases made before the competition count, and purchases by any member count toward the team.
- A team that misses that deadline can keep building and posting with everyone else, but is not judged.
What you build
You pick one of five tracks: Off-Grid Power · Embedded / IoT · Smart Agriculture · Mechanical / 3D Fabrication · Open Hardware. The tracks are areas of focus, not instructions. What you build inside one is your decision, and you can change track when you submit your Build Plan.
Your final-year project can be your Build Nigeria entry. The work has to be done during the programme and documented as you go; anything you had already built before must be declared in your Build Plan. Judges score what was built in the programme.
Building in public
Every approved team posts its progress at least once a week — at least 4 of the 6 build weeks, plus both milestone posts. Tag us on the platform you post to, and use #BuildNigeria2026. The weekly log is judged on what it shows, never on likes or followers.
Dates
| Mon 21 September | Registration opens |
| Thu 28 September | Build Plans open |
| Sun 11 October | Registration closes |
| Sun 18 October | Build Plan deadline |
| Sat 24 October | Approved teams confirmed |
| Mon 26 October | Build period begins |
| Sun 1 November | ₦25,000 team spend deadline |
| Sun 8 November | Milestone 1 — first power-on |
| Sun 22 November | Milestone 2 — working prototype and buyer check |
| Sun 6 December | Submissions close |
| Fri 11 December | Finalists announced |
| Sat 19 December | Grand Final, livestreamed |
How entries are judged
| Evidence of demand | 25 | A real prospective buyer, named, who has seen what you built and responded. A letter of interest, a pre-order, a pilot, recorded feedback. Assertion earns nothing. |
| It works | 25 | The built thing doing the thing, on video — and live on a verification call if you reach the final. Simulation is not a build. |
| Unit economics | 20 | A real bill of materials with real prices, a landed cost, a proposed selling price, and an honest margin. |
| Manufacturability in Nigeria | 15 | What changes if you had to make fifty? Sourceable parts, enclosure, assembly, test. |
| Build log and documentation | 15 | Your weekly public build log, schematic, code and BOM — clear enough that a stranger could rebuild it. Content is scored, never likes. |
Fit to a track is not scored — approval is about safety, scope and whether a buyer exists, not about subject. Finalists are the top ten by score; there are no track quotas. Each track also gets a Best in Track award, and there is a separate People’s Choice, which is a public vote and never part of the main score. The panel is two Microscale engineers, the CTO as chair, and two judges from outside the company. A judge connected to a team recuses from that team.
Prizes
- 1st — Creality SparkX i7 Combo 3D printer
- 2nd — FNIRSI 1014D 100MHz oscilloscope
- 3rd — RC metal chassis car kit
- Best in Track ×5 · People’s Choice · weekly Build of the Week · a verified Forge credential for every finalist
Prizes go to the team and are delivered to the one member the team names.
Your work stays yours
The IP in your project stays with your team. Always. Microscale does not own, license or share it. Entering publicity consent lets us publish your name, institution, project title, images and video from the competition — nothing more.
You run your own commercial side. You find your buyers, have the conversations and own any agreement you make. You may say you are competing in Build Nigeria; you may not say or imply that Microscale is buying, selling, endorsing or manufacturing your product. After the award, the top ten are invited into a conversation about what it would take to make fifty — an opportunity, never a guarantee.
Safety
Builds involving mains AC, lithium battery packs or high-current DC must be declared in your Build Plan. Lithium packs must be LiFePO4 with a BMS, or a commercial pack with an integrated BMS. Mains-connected builds must be enclosed, and demonstrated enclosed on camera. Plan review can require changes, and judges can disqualify an unsafe build.
Disqualification
Presenting a bought or copied product as your own, buying People’s Choice votes, or abusive conduct toward other teams, judges or staff.
Beware of fake channels
Registration is free. We never charge a registration fee, and we will never message you asking for money. The only official channel is microscale.net/build.