Five young girls, all grade six students of Standard Bearers School, Lekki, Lagos, recently did Nigeria proud in far away United States.
Competing under the pseudonym, Brain Squad, the girls: Ariyo Ayomikun, Ivana Mordi, Jadesola Kassim, Munachiso Chigbo and Pandora Onyedire were the only Africans to make it to the finals of this year’s edition of Technovation challenge held at Silicon Valley in California. They had cruised their ways to the grand finale, after coming tops at the state, regional and national levels of the competition.
The girls invented an app that helps less privileged children go to school. Tagged: ‘Handsout’, the app won the People’s Choice award at this year’s Technovation competition, which featured more than 19,000 teenage girls. ‘Handsout’ allows people from all over the world to easily donate to Nigerian children and their families, to help them pay their school fees, buy stationaries and medication. It was inspired by a tragic incident that occurred early this year where many children lost their lives after a school building collapsed in Itafaji, Lagos Island.
Speaking at a reception held in their honour in Lagos, a Brain Squad member, Munachimso Chigbo, said participating in the competition has widened their knowledge in the area of ICT. “It was an interesting experience for all of us; they also introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) to us and how to use it to solve problems. We went to Uber where they explained to us the platforms they use in their operations, while Google took us to Google Ventures where we had our practice pitch. All the contestants, both senior and junior category, were to meet the judges; it was an opportunity for them to give us infomation about our pitch and what they feel we should add to it,” she said.
Commenting, the proprietor of Standard Bearers School, Mrs. Modupe Adeyinka-Oni, said participating in the competition was an induction for the girls into the Technovation Academy. “They have over 17,000 of them right now around the world. This is a platform that allows them to reach out for mentorship anytime; it also allows them to write their CVs and put Technovation 2019 finalist on it. What that would do for them is to take their application from bottom to the top of the pile. In America, Technovation is a big deal. Around the world, it’s something people are just getting to know. Once you take part in the contest, you don’t even need to get to finals, it opens doors for you,” she said.
According to Adeyinka-Oni, the commitment right now is to bring what the girls received at Technovation back home.