Recently updated on October 24th, 2022 at 04:14 pm
Nigerian Team Save-A-Soul have won the 2018 Technovation World Pitch Junior Division.
The Nigerian girls won the Junior Division Finalists (App focus) category during the “Global Innovation Celebration” held in the San Jose Theatre, August 9, 2018.
The girls, from Regina Abachi secondary school, Onitsa, codenamed Team Save-A-Soul comprising of Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye, developed a mobile application called ‘FD-Detector’ to tackle the problem of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria with Mrs Uchenna Onwuamaegbu-Ugwu, as their mentor.
The app leverages a drug’s barcode to verify its authenticity and expiration date. Save-A-Soul will also partner with NAFDAC (National Agency for Food & Drug Administration and Control), an agency responsible for regulating drugs in Nigeria.
The Nigerian girls defeated teams from the United States of America (USA), Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan and China to win the 2018 Technovation world pitch junior division in San Francisco, USA.
The young Nigerian girls were selected from 2,000 mobile app developers to represent Africa at the world pitch.
This is the first time a Junior Nigerian team will emerge among the finalists to visit Silicon Valley and the Nigerian teenage girls will be pitching their app to investors in Silicon Valley, California.
Technovation is a program that invites girls to identify a problem in their communities and then challenge them to solve them by developing apps.
According to Team Save-A-Soul:
“Leveraging technology to save lives is our utmost priority, that is why we have decided to maximize this opportunity to solve the incessant rate of death caused by fake drugs.”
The 2018 World Pitch Summit is the final event following more than seven months of hard work, innovation, and problem solving by more than 19,000 girls in 115 countries supported by over 5,000 mentors.
More than $50,000 USD was awarded across the teams.
Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on a Twitter post said:
