A team of four outstanding young girls from Jacobs Well High School in Port Harcourt has achieved remarkable success by winning the Special Prize – Combating Hunger Award and securing a spot among the 15 finalists in the prestigious World Technovation Girls Challenge.
They will be representing Nigeria and Africa in the World Summit finals which will take place in Silicon Valley, California, USA.
This global competition empowers young girls between the ages 8-18 to leverage technology to address pressing issues in their communities.
The talented team members:
- Oghenemaro Tejiri (12),
- Salome Akhabhau (11),
- Excel Barile-Nwika (11), and
- Goodness Nwonanne-Chima (12)— were coached by their mentor, Mr. Somkenechukwu Mamah, founder of Code Ambassadors, an organisation dedicated to training young mindsbetween the ages of 5-17 in technology, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship skills.
This year, nearly 11,000 girls from 69 countries participated, developing 3,200 tech-based solutions to community problems.
The team, Smart Elites, stood out with their innovative mobile application, AgriConnect, designed to combat food insecurity in Nigeria by connecting farmers with free land spaces. They competed with teams from Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada, Kazakhstan, Japan, the United States and 62 other countries.
More about AgriConnect:
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture released a shocking report, saying that 31.5 million Nigerians will suffer from a food crisis and acute hunger between June and August this year, 2024!
This is because the main food-producing region, the North, is unable to produce enough food.
The solution to this problem is for every region to produce its food and from our survey 86% of the respondents expressed interest in farming but lacked the means or resources to start.
To achieve that, the team developed AgriConnect—a mobile application connecting farmers, nearby landowners, and seedling sellers.
