Four female students of Jacob’s Well High School International, Port Harcourt, who developed an android application named AgriConnect meant to deal with hunger issues in the country, will be attending this year’s World Technovation Girls Challenge holding in Silicon Valley, California, in the United States of America.
The summit will hold between October 15 and 19, 2024, and will attract other young female android application developers who were selected after a tedious process across the globe.
The JSS2 students-Oghenemaro Tejiri,12, Salome Akhabhau,11, Excel Barile-Nwika,11 and Goodness Nwonanne-Chima,12 known as Smart Elite had developed the android application to tackle hunger in Nigeria.
The girls were under the tutelage of Code Ambassadors, the consultants engaged to groom students in the school to become shining stars in the evolving tech world.
The AgriConnect was among the 3,200 android applications developed by about 11,000 girls from 69 countries, including the USA, UK, Japan, China, Canada, and Spain.
After a series of assessments by several judges drawn from various disciplines, 15 android applications were selected as finalists (five android applications for each division), while three android applications were selected for special awards, which virtual ceremony took place on July 9.
For their outstanding app, the young Nigerian female developers who were given special recognition were invited to the all expense paid technovation summit where the grand awardees would be selected.
Speaking on the development, coordinator and proprietor of the school, Mrs Egondu Jacob told journalists that it was not surprising that her students were putting Rivers State, the Niger Delta and Nigeria on the list of nations of the world whose students are outstanding in apps developments at a very young age
She said: “The news of the exceptional performance of our girls and the special award for combating hunger was received with lots of excitement by the board chairman, Engr. Unwana Jacob and the entire school.
“We are optimistic that greater achievements are on the way and Nigeria and Africa would be made proud through the achievements of our students. It is interesting to note that AgriConnect was the only android application from Nigeria that made it to the final round as well as the only android application in Africa that got a special award out of the three mobile applications recognized for a special award, globally,” she said.
She added that in today’s world that was being driven by technology, it was important for Nigerian leaders to invest in and encourage children to grow in their knowledge of technology, adding that it was for that reason that Jacob’s Well Schools decided to introduce coding and robotics and ICT to pupils from primary one.
“As at date, students and pupils in the school have created over 12 android applications to solve societal problems and some of these apps have received international recognition. Five android applications created by the five teams of female students in the school were registered for the 2024 Technovation Global Competition,” she said.
Also speaking, the school’s tech consultant Mr. Somkenechukwu Mamah, the founder of Code Ambassadors expressed hope that the female quartet app developers would stand out “as the youngest startup co-founders who leverage technology to solve more problems, especially in the agricultural sector.”
“In the next five years, they should have gained experience building business models around their solution, gaining more traction, attracting funding, and inspiring more young minds to start their tech journey early enough. I hope the country supports them by providing all the resources and access they need to get their solution into the hands of Nigerians.”
