The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami has called for the marketability of innovative solutions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Virtual Hackathon 2020.
The minister who spoke during the presentation of cheques to the final three winners of the hackathon at the Commission’s office today, said the world is united in finding a solution to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The winners of the hackathon are: Automated Temperature Scanner with Contact Tracing Capability by Elizade University Team, The SmartClinic Patient Mobile App by Primed E-Health and KlasConnect by Cyberfleet Integrated Limited. They received cash prize of N3 million grants each.
Pantami who congratulated the winners for emerging tops said, “They have shown that all our efforts to become part of the global digital innovation stage are yielding fruits. We hope that these innovations will be bankable and marketable to the local, national and international market places.
“ICT innovations do not discriminate. The COVID-19 pandemic has become one in which the World is united in finding a solution. Any digital solution to addressing any aspect of the challenges posed by the pandemic is welcome.
The minister commended NCC for setting the tone in a very timely manner and hope that there will be a continuous focus in pursuit of innovative solutions to all aspects of our national life in a way to contribute to inclusive growth.
The executive vice chairman, NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta in his welcome speech stated that the hackathon challenge is in tandem with the 8-pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy 2020-2030, with the minister as the pilot.
“We considered the challenge to find a local content solution to the pandemic as fillip to our strategic designs as contemplated in our 8-Point Agenda, which, incidentally, aligns with the 8-pillars of the NDEPS 2020. It is evident that the entire globe is challenged about how best to tackle this pandemic,” he said.
Pantami said the Hackathon is expected to throw up innovative and adaptable solutions that will address the present and future impacts of pandemics and epidemic diseases in Nigeria focusing on five thematic areas namely Health, Community, Productivity, Economy and Education.
“Today, we hope to unveil the three winning adaptable digital solutions from Startups or Digital SME’s who participated in this competition, aimed at producing homegrown solutions to the global pandemic for local, national or global adoption.
“We had, in inviting submissions for this innovative digital solution to Covid-19 pandemic, sought novel ideas or solution to address the needs of health workers and other frontline health professionals including individuals in isolation centres, or provide help for relevant agencies involved in tracking and tracing the spread of the virus as well as support or facilitation of other preventive measures,” the EVC added further.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Director, Research and Development, NCC, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, said the NCC Virtual Hackathon 2020 was in initiated in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, to challenge Nigerian Startups, Technology Hubs and Innovation Digital SMEs to come up with adaptable digital solutions for addressing the present and future impacts of Pandemic and Epidemic diseases in Nigeria.
He said the Hackathon was designed to engage the Startups to compete in a healthy manner in such a way as to improve our innovativeness. “When we advertised and called for entries to the Hackathon, a total of 298 submissions were received from Startups. After the first and second level preliminary assessments based on the pre-established selection criteria, 56 of the Startups qualified for the final stage of the Evaluation Processes.
“Out of the 56 Solutions from different Startups that participated in the Virtual Hackathon, three winning solutions were identified through a painstaking evaluation process that threw up the overall first, second and third bests Startups with the most promising and adaptable solutions.
The winning Startups will today receive a cash prize but most importantly, the Commission through the Research and Development Department will continue to support flourishing innovations by creating the right regulatory interventions to give a fillip to sustenance of Startups and tech-hubs in Nigeria.
“Beyond prize winning, we congratulate every Startup who participated in this competition. We have no doubt that the experience gained will provide all of us with the opportunity to retool and re-engineer our innovative skills for a better future for our businesses and our nation,” Nkemadu added.
The SmartClinic Patient Mobile App will link a patient based mobile health App (Smartclinic Mobile) with a Hospital based Hospital information management system (Smartclinic Hospital).
The Automated Temperature Scanner with Contact Tracing Capability by Elizade University Team proposed device is aimed at assisting in automatic temperature screening and contact tracing of persons with body temperature above the normal for human beings.
On the other hand, Klasconnect provides educational institutions with a web portal that enables students work remotely by registering for courses, receiving lectures, delivering assignments and creating and executing tasks.