FOUR GIRL NIGERIAN TEAM WIN TECH COMPETITION IN USA AND INSPIRE MAKING OF FILM

TEAM CHARIS AT THE 2015 TECHNOVATION CHALLENGE IN SAN FRANCISCO, USA

There are certainly many times when one is proud to be a Nigerian and this is one of such when one reads of the four young Nigerian girls who went to the United States of America without any fanfare to present an app (application) they built in the 2015 Technovation Challenge. The girls contested as Team Charis (TEAM Nigeria) and emerged winners in the competition which held in San Francisco, USA in July and had entries from all over the world.

The winning team is made of Praise David-Oku, Sonam Kumar, Nmesoma Ogbonna, and Grace Akpoiroro and their creation; a mobile app that can be used to solve the waste disposal challenge in Nigeria. They entered their winning app called Discardious in the competition.

Their victory inspired the production of a documentary movie which is to be launched soon. The film titled CODEGIRL is on different teams of high school aged girls from countries such as Moldova, Brazil and the USA who design and develop apps to address global needs starting in their own backyard and participated in the Technovation Challenge. It is made by an award-winning filmmaker Lesley Chilcott, who directed the films An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman.

In the competition, the girls from Brazil present an educational mobile game that preserves water and energy, from Mexico; it’s an app for identifying domestic violence while from the USA it’s an Air BnB for household goods that allows neighbors to rent lawnmowers and other appliances from one another. The girls from Nigeria present an app for garbage collection. Another team develops a drunk driving detector app.

The Discardious is an android mobile app allows upscale business owners and individuals to discard waste conveniently and on time. It also provides a blog space for news and information on proper waste disposal and management.

To use the service, the user has to download and install the Discardious App to their Andriod device, open an account and select a location using Google Map to commence use. The app makes it possible to either report a hazard in their environment or request a mobile cart to pick up their waste.