Nigeria was jubilant recently when five Nigerian high-school girls were announced world champions at a tech competition in the US. Most importantly, this feat is sure to motivate and awaken a new generation of young tech champions in the country, writes Patrick Egwu.
Technovation is the world’s largest global tech entrepreneurship program for girls. This year, girls from Nigeria won the junior category of the competition for their app named FD-Detector (Fake Drug Detector), a life-saving app that spots fake drugs.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the launch of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. Serving on it, alongside Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Jack Ma, executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, is millennial digital equality advocate and lobbyist Nanjira Sambuli
Googles Project Loon is using a network of balloons to provide internet connectivity. The technology is ideal in disaster scenarios and for facilitating connectivity to remote areas around the world.
Alvin Chitena believes that coding is an essential skill and he is sharing his knowledge with young people, hoping to equip them for a bright future. Chitena says: “Leaders who don’t understand the importance of technology hinder the advancement of tech spaces.”
Girls in ICT Rwanda celebrated the fifth anniversary of Ms Geek with the second edition of Ms Geek Africa, a competition that judges women on brilliance rather than beauty.
Various countries on the continent are encouraging young boys and girls to learn robotics. Namibia’s first robotics school, ROBOTSCHOOL, will be launched, in June this year by Bjorn and Kirstin Wiedow.
Maintaining its status as a technological hub, Kenya now houses the fourth outsourced Microsoft testing centre, joining others based in India, China and Poland.
Poaching is a blight that has robbed future generations of several species already, including the northern white rhino, of which only two females remain. Tanzania is now using proactive measures such as satellite collaring to save its drastically thinning elephant population
President Paul Kagame has not been credited enough with improving the Rwandan health system with the use of drones. Rwanda was the first country in the world to use drones in transporting blood to remote clinics, saving many lives. The drones have been improved on and will increase deliveries from 50 to 500.
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