Another giant stride for Nigeria in the Tech world, as five girls from Regina Pacies Secondary School Onitsha Anambra State Nigeria, won Gold medal in the World Technovation Challenge in the United States of America.
The competition which is the largest Tech entrepreneurship program saw over 2,000 contestants in the ages of 10-18 battle it out for the top prize. The Nigerian girls and girls from India took home the top prize in their respective category and Invention.
The five girls from Anambra represented Nigeria and Africa at the World Technovation Challenge in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, United States of America.
The girls namely, Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye were led by one Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu, as they came first ahead of Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and China.
The Nigerians won the competition after they designed a mobile application called the FD-Detector which they developed to help tackle the challenges of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria, which Anambra as a state is notoriously known for.
Technovation is a programme that offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the programming skills they need to emerge as tech-entrepreneurs and leaders. Every year, girls are invited to identify a problem in their communities, and then challenge them to solve them by developing Andriod applications that would address those problems.
115 countries participated in the qualifiers but only 12 teams from all over the world were selected as finalists for the pitch in Silicon Valley.
The girls will also be attending Field trips, life-changing workshops including a networking session during their one week stay in the United States.
The Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano who played a huge part in their preparation and although was not present at the finals, he said it was never a surprise the girls won as he has seen first hand how important and valuable their innovation would be in saving lives.
Governor Willie Obiano while speaking on the girls’ achievement, and for making Anambra proud, he urges other young girls and boys to emulate them, as they wait to host them on arrival.