The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami has asserted that no country in the world can develop rapidly without taking deliberate decisions to promote its indigenous solutions to solve national problems.
The Minister made this assertion during the presentation of N3 million prize money to each of the three promising startups that emerged winners in the COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Abuja, yesterday.
“No country will develop without taking deliberate decisions to promote its indigenous solutions to solve national problems. Through this contest, the NCC has demonstrated its resolve to drive the Ministry’s efforts in leveraging indigenous digital solutions to address challenges thrown up by COVID-19 pandemic and beyond,” the Minister said.
While commending the leadership of the Commission for embarking on the tech contest, Pantami urged all stakeholders to join hands with the Ministry and its agencies in their quest to promote the development of indigenous digital solutions in Nigeria.
He said the initiative is not only in tandem with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) but also aligns with the implementation of the Executive Order 003, which aims to promote indigenous content development and patronage in Nigeria.
Speaking earlier at the prize-giving ceremony, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC. Prof. Umar Danbatta assured that the Hackathon is expected to throw up innovative and adaptable solutions in five thematic areas namely health, community, productivity, economy and education.
Danbatta stated that the Commission is committed to encouraging innovation and has regularly sponsored Nigerian youths with innovative ideas to various competitions organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and other international bodies.
“The NCC, has in the past two years, facilitated similar ICT-based innovations and research competitions among tertiary institutions in the country,” he said while reiterating the NCC’s commitment to driving indigenous digital innovations to address national challenges.
The Virtual Hackathon was initiated by NCC to ignite the Nigerian youths to develop adaptable and innovative digital solutions that can address some of the challenges that have come about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The start-ups who made it to the top three are Elizade University Team, Primed E-Health Solutions and Cyberfleet. The Elizade University Team’s tech solution is an Automated Temperature Scanner (ATS), a device designed to conduct automatic temperature screening and contact tracing of persons with body temperature above the normal level for human beings.
Primed E-Health developed a mobile and web solution called SmartClinic, which can link a patient-based mobile health app with a hospital-based information management system while ‘KlassConnect’ by Cyberfleet is an online platform that can be deployed by schools to continue with teaching and learning activities regardless of any health challenges that may prevent face-to-face physical interactions.