Nigeria outshines everyone in 2015 Technovation Challenge

The Technovation 2015 marked its genesis in San Francisco, United States and Nigeria outclassed at the event leaving behind participants from United States, Mexico, Canada and other countries from Asia. Digitallagos.tv feels immensely proud to showcase the hard work of team Charis from Nigeria that stood first in High School Division at the event. We’d also look at some other aspects of the event and see how this achievement has unlocked different possibilities for young students in Nigeria.

The focus of the Technovation team is very clear and upfront. Since 2010 it has become one of the greatest attempt towards women empowerment as it challenges girls from different parts of the world to address community problems by finding outstanding solutions to eliminate them. These solutions usually take shape of a mobile app and target the audience. The girls don’t need to have any programming knowledge or background to participate. They just need to have a vision and some ideas. The event is free to participate and since its inception, over 3000 girls have participated from about 28 different countries. This clarifies the vastness of this affair.

This year, 64 countries took part in the event with over 380 apps submitted. Team Charis from Nigeria stood first this year in the Middle School Division. The girls were given a chance to explain their project and their app story in a unique and creative way. Talking about the team, the team members are very passionate and even though they come from diverse backgrounds, they have their minds synced in only direction – giving it back to the community. The members first met in high school and after that met again at iKapture Afterschool Academy.

The app designed by them was named Discardious and it was missioned to help solve the problem of improper waste disposal in Nigeria. The app empowers a user to dispose wastes conveniently and on time. When launched, the app picks up your location as per your request and can then help you in scheduling a waste pick up. At the same time it also adds the feature to report an environment problem in your neighborhood to the appropriate platform escalating it to the concerned authority. The app also has a blog space that contains news and valuable information on waste management and disposals. This can be very intriguing thus helping fight the waste disposal issue in the country. The app is currently available for the Android platform.

With this achievement in hand, the girls have brought laurels to the country and have motivated the current Nigerian students to think beyond their capabilities and make a difference in this world by contributing via their inputs. Team member Praise David-Oku says being a Technovation finalist; it gives her confidence and self-motivation to spark a change in this world. She adds that the event gave her a platform and has helped her in networking with people and sharing her ideas with them. She feels that with such platforms happening around the world there can be more young achievers like her. The world is changing and it’s changing rapidly because of young leaders like these. A message to the Lagos blog readers – keep inspiring creativity and keep changing the world.