Nigeria’s TRUCKIT.NG has been voted among the 40 winners of this year’s international World Summit Award that showcases the world’s best practices in digital innovation with impact on society.
Programos Foundation, Nigeria’s coordinating civil society organization for the United Nations based World Summit Awards, which selects and promotes local digital innovation with high impact on improving society has announced.
Announcing the results, Mr Amos Emmanuel, Chief Software Architect/Chairman, Programos Software Group and Founder, Programos Foundation, noted that 40 Winners from 23 countries, selected from over 400 nominations from 180 countries.
He said the World Summit Awards present a global spectre of change making projects ranging from big data for tourism to organ 3D printing, from a job-platform focusing on female tech talent to empowering smallholder farms – no matter what the technology, it’s the unique content that makes this top 40 exceptional.
UTRUCKIT.NG will receive their Award in the SMART SETTLEMENTS & URBANIZATION category at the World Summit Global Congress in Vienna March 2018. The award will also be given to the innovator in front of UN representatives, ICT ministries, Country contingent and the private sector.
Nigeria won in the category along with Canada, Sri Lanka, Chile and China. Pioneered by Tom Roberts, who has just made Nigeria proud. TRUCKIT.NG enables cargo owners convey their cargo the way they want it from the comfort of their homes just by using the Truckit app.
“To drive meaningful and relevant digital innovation, you have to serve local needs and compare with global excellence. With the WSA we recognize innovation of tomorrow already today. This year’s winners are an excellent selection of this momentum, matching local solutions to local needs, with global relevance. WSA highlights the diversity and excellence in digital content with impact on society,” said WSA Chairman Peter A. Bruck. The agenda of the WSA Global Congress will be a compilation of interaction and inspiration, assembling workshops, business blind-dates and infamous keynotes, bringing together UN and governmental representatives, privates sector and innovators.
WSA 2017 once more presents a diameter of digital innovation from Chile to Malaysia, from Nigeria to Finland. Be it a miniature AED machine with diagnostic app, an environmental behaviour training game, or a tiny programmable computer that helps/encourages school children to learn to code, the WSA Winners 2017 offer a vast spectre of digital innovation globally. The WSA winners 2017 will present their innovations and receive their awards at the WSA Global Congress in Vienna, Austria (March 20-22 2018). The agenda of the WSA Congress will be a compilation of interaction and inspiration, assembling workshops, business blind-dates and inspiring keynotes, bringing together the global and multi-stakeholder network of WSA. WSA promotes and recognizes the uniqueness of digital innovation with impact on society. The WSA winners were selected by a Jury of international ICT experts in two democratic rounds. Each UN Member State is eligible to nominate one product per category for the World Summit Award. This way any nomination results from a national pre-selection prior to the international WSA Jury.
During the National Competition, the innovation contest was indeed an opportunity for the National Expert to identify new solutions creating positive impacts from across Nigeria. Submitted products range from diverse sectoral categories. In Business and Commerce category, the disruptive digital banking product called “Alat.ng” from Wema Bank Plc emerged the National winner, while for the Culture & Tourism category, NICADEMIA, anchored by Ubalua Valentine won; EDALAF Tutor championed by Abiodun Falade won in the Learning and & Education category; ONLINE LEGAL ACCESS, led by Gbenga Oso won the Government & Citizen Engagement category;eTrash2Cash led by Muhammad Abdullahi won the ENVIRONMENT & GREEN ENERGY category.
The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global initiative, which aims to select and promote the world’s best in digital content and innovative applications. It is organised in the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and mandated by the WSIS Plan of Action.
The WSA is a nomination based award that works with an international expert network. The expert’s task is to scout the national ICT markets for suitable applications due to the evaluation criteria of the WSA.
“It is positive development that Nigeria’s innovation space have been competitive in the World Summit Awards annual competitions in the last decade. Last year FilYaTank mobile from Nigeria also won the global competition.” Mr Amos Emmanuel stated. He added, “It is my prayers that my current continental engagements of African National Experts with the support of the WSA office in Austria on the new WSA AFRICA platform can engender valuable collaboration to deepen the knowledge content of the continents’ digital sector innovators.