By Emeka Aginam

Those who think that  Made-in-Nigeria software cannot compete favourably on a global scale, might need to have a rethink. Just last week, no fewer than 56 energetic and creative young Nigerians with passion for technology innovation had pitched their solutions ‘Hacked within 36 hours nonstop coding’  at the just concluded Delta State open innovation hackathon.

From left: Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs. Onokpise, Christian Jombo, Emmanuel Essiet (winners of  Delta State Open Hackathon from University of Uyo), the  Delta State Commissioner of Finance, Olorogun David Edevwe, and the Director General of Delta State Innovation Hub, Dr. Chris Uwaje

The competition focused on resolving the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs challenge for Nigeria and Africa.

There were convincing signals that  products showcased  at the hackathon have the resilience and  capability to solve local challenges if properly harnessed and deployed.

For the  Delta State Governor,  Senator. Ifeanyi Okowa and the panel of judges who were thrilled with the innovative solutions on showcase, ‘the tech entrepreneurs must scale up their solutions to meet up with national and global market challenges.

The event was developed in response  to the need to engage and build up Tech-creative minds and young innovative software developers and start-ups in Nigeria.

One thing was clear after watching their presentations. They all had amazing solutions that could deliver the benefits of the  SDGs.

For the judges, if the solutions on showcase are scaled up to market application level, the set targets of challenges for Nigeria and Africa on sustainable developments goals (SDGs) of the United Nations would be solved to the barest minimum.

Speaking after the competition which was won by Team Artisan made up of two students from  the University of Uyo that took the first position, the Governor of Delta State ,Senator. Ifeanyi Okowa who was tickled with the innovations showcased by the participants, said that they represented skilled workforce needed to accelerate the local content solutions deployment and take Nigeria to the next level.

While urging the participants to scale up their solution to the next level, the Commissioner of Finance, Olorogun David Edevwe, who represented the Governor, told the gathering that the hackathon would position the participants well for challenges of modern ICT-driven economy and should be done annually.

“Everybody is a winner. There is need to engage in a paradigm shift, which is focused on knowledge research and , aggregate experimenting with new and innovative ways of achieving rapid economic development for the good and prosperity of Deltans.

“The essence of this drive is to reduce poverty to its barest minimum while simultaneously improving lives, aggregating wealth and promoting the well-being of Deltans.

The state government believes that the expertise in the knowledge, practice and adoption of technology can be effectively harnessed through constructive innovation to curtail poverty and ignorance”, he said.

To sustain and build these benefits, he said that there was  needed to build a critical mass of ICT manpower across the state.

With optimism, he believed that the youths could be engaged with hackathon as a way of getting them out of the street.

The Governor challenged the tech entrepreneurs to put their skills and energy to  enhance technological drive  to meet the myriad of socio-economic challenges currently staring Nigeria in the face.

Out of digital slavery

For the Director General of the Delta State Innovation Hub, Chris Uwaje, if the ideas on showcase are well crafted through knowledge mentoring and turned into concrete solutions, Nigeria could be free from digital slavery.

With their good ideas, concept and solutions, Uwaje noted that all the main pillar of DSIHUB is Jim Ovia , the Chairman of Zenith Bank, who remains a source of inspiration to him and Nigerian Youths.

Moving forward, Uwaje said  it was time for the government to establish Innovation Development Fund and indeed an Innovation development Bank to provide seed funding and support for the startups.

He  advocated for a true National Open Hackathon where 50,000 Nigerian Youths would be assembled to shoot for  creativity and innovation to select the best 1000.

While commending Mainone, Smile, IXPN, Zinox, Naira,  Open Media, SchoolVille, Mobile Software and other  sponsors of the hackathon,  he  informed that the  innovation hub has the capacity to retool civil servants and government policy makers, through e-Government and in particular, millions of youths hanging around without jobs.

For the judges, the solutions must be retooled to meet market demands. According to  Gaul Iheanocho of Gaulis Technologies of Chigago, USA, who held brief for for Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, the Chairman of the event who was  also the chief judge, the participants have done well, adding that everyone  was a winner.

The next challenge

Admitting that the tech start-ups have good ideas,  he  said that what they lack is processes for bringing their to the market to make money.

“The process is to develop it, test it, put it in the market and get feedback for better testing. I will like them to harness their great ideas into reality. But they must move away from thinking of how to make money immediately. Money will come when the products are fully developed . Great ideas but we need to turn them into products”, he explained.

Speaking with excitement shortly after announcing them as the winner, Emmanuel Essiet who is the spokesperson of Team Artisan commended the Delta State government for given them the opportunity to pitch their product.

“We are very happy to win the cup. We will take our solution designed for job creation to the next level. The app will help self-employed people to connect via the artisan software and locate jobs. We will test it and move to the market to solve a problem. We also need seed support and mentorship to scale up” Essiet who said that they are Computer Science Students from University of Calabar, said.