Nigeria wins global tech challenge

Nigeria has emerged the winner of the 2015 Technovation Challenge world pitch held at San Francisco, USA, beating 64 other countries by developing a mobile app to tackle waste disposal challenge in Nigeria.

TEAM Nigeria made up of four girls; Praise David-Oku, Sonam Kumar, Nmesoma Ogbonna, and Grace Akpoiroro won first place with their app called, ‘Discardious’, making it the first time a Nigerian team would come first globally in Technovation World Pitch.

Grace Ihejiamaizu, an International Exchange Alumni and founder of iKapture Networks, who mentored the winning team said they faced a lot of challenges on their way to success but overcame.

64 countries participated in the competition with 380 apps submitted, 10 teams from all over the world were given the opportunity to explain their project in form of a pitch and tell their app story in a creative way.

One of the team members, Praise David-Oku, who spoke for the team, said the competition has totally changed their views of technology. “It has given our team a platform to use technology to solve problems in our community.

“It has also motivated us to think outside the box. It has boosted my self-confidence and helped me build new relationships and networking skills. I have met new people from different parts of the world and shared ideas. It has also made me realize that I am not too young to start achieving my goals”.

Sonam, one of the team members said: “It was wonderful, tough and very competitive. It was challenging for us, as we met and listened to people from different parts of the world tell their stories and share their powerful ideas. Above all, we learnt a lot of things about coding, networking and public speaking”.

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She emphasized that parents should enrol their girls in computer programmes at a tender age, provide technology gadgets for use at home, allow and encourage them to participate in technology competitions and programs, and encourage them to pick and study science related courses

The team while noting, that the achievement is only the beginning of something big, said “We are going to empower, build and guide young girls to participate in the next Technovation competition. We will launch our app and work on our project to solve pressing challenges in Nigeria. Technovation in Nigeria has come to stay for good”.

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