Young Nigerian Software developers gather in Tinapa

ABOUT 26 Nigerian youth software developers, made up of undergraduate and post-graduate students, recenlty gathered at the Tinapa Knowledge City, Calabar, Cross River State to explore new opportunities in software and knowledge development.

  The developers were brought together through the ‘Software Hackathon’ event, a pre-stage activity set to create awareness for the commissioning of the knowledge incubator project promoted by the Ministry of Communication Technology and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) through the Information Technology Development Entrepreneur Accelerator (iDEA). iDEA is a non-government organisation established to create and promote knowledge incubation in the country.

Indeed, the ISPON/iDEA Hackathon in Tinapa was a corporate technology event, held as an idea hunt competition to help bridge the innovation gap that exists between the Nigeria software developers and their institutions.

  The aims and the design principles of the innovation competitions will include the following: to encourage young software developers to participate in an open innovation process, to trigger off their potential and inspire their creativity with the aim of increasing their quality of their works.

  To generate innovations, process and product ideas for development through an IT-enabled ideas competition and accommodating lapses, to acknowledge that innovation competitions are useful in generating radical ideas for the development of new products and solutions.

  Chairman of iDEA Incubator, Dotun Sulaiman was in Tinapa to motivate the participants.

  The highlight of the event witnessed the appearance of the Governor of Cross River State –Liyel Imoke, who gave a remarkable speech of encouragement.

  Le-Media from Team 2 made up of Aboluwarin Olaoluwa David, Banjo Mofesola Paul and Oladapo Oluwadara Glory won the first prize of N450, 000 with three Nokia Lumia Phones.

  Similarly, EduCare from Team five made up of Kester Uwaje and Tiamiyu Mubarak, won the second prize of N250, 000 and two Nokia Lumia phones, while HealthLaunch Pad from Team 8 made up of Mark Olofu and Temitope Oguntade won the third price of N150, 000.

  However, Keep Nigeria alive from Team six made up of Junior Pius Ekeh and Eyinka Iheanyi won the fourth position and was rewarded with a BlackBerry Z10 Phone. Me-Explorer from Team 3 made up of Okwu Marcus Eke, Anyadike Iheanyi and John Nnanna Oji won the fifth position and was rewarded with a BlackBerry Z10 Phone.

  The Cross River State governor motivated the participants to gear up for the national software competition organised by ISPON. The event is scheduled for October 22-23 in Tinapa Knowledge City, Calabar, where Professor Tapio Varis, the UN chairman of e-learning is billed to deliver the keynote address.

  At the event, the Minister of Communication Technology was represented by Dr. Ashiru Daura, the acting director general of NITDA. Chris Uwaje, the president of ISPON was the lead resource for the Hackathon.

Guardian