Women in Technology in Nigeria, WITIN has launched a Technovation Challenge dubbed the Mobile App Challenge for secondary school girls aged 13 to 18 years.
The girls will be required to work in teams of 5 to come up with mobile apps, carry out market research, write selling business plans and pitch for funding.
According to WITIN, “Each team works with both a classroom teacher at their school and a female mentor/role model from the technology industry.
The challenge is done in partnership with the ITU’s Girls in ICT project and Tech Needs Girls campaign.
WITIN will select mentors from across the country to guide teachers to train teams throughout the process. Like DEMO’s in the US, the teams compete for available funding to launch their company and take it to the market.
WITIN said the ”goal of the program is to promote women in technology by inspiring girls to see themselves not just as users of technology, but as inventors, designers, builders, and entrepreneurs in the technology industry.”
The young girls are taught how to identify a problem in the society, design a solution and test it, work in teams and express themselves freely to different audiences. The programme is expected to reinforce digital representation of information, algorithmic thinking and programming, and the societal impact of information and information technology from their academic studies.
The winning team will be announced April 25 to mark the Girls in ICT Day and will present their apps in Silicon Valley California at the global competitions May 1 where the overall winner secures $10,000 in funding and support to build their businesses around the app.
All girls need to sign up is a team of 5, a computer, an android phone and an adult mentor or teacher.
