Rivers Students to Represent Nigeria in USA on Agriconnect

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

A team of four young girls from Jacobs Well High School in Port Harcourt has achieved remarkable success by winning the Combating Hunger Award.

The students secured a spot among the 15 finalists in the prestigious World Technovation Girls Challenge.

The female students are Oghenemaro Tejiri (12), Salome Akhabhau (11), Excel Barile-Nwika (11), and Goodness Nwonanne-Chima (12).

They will represent Nigeria in the finals, which will take place in Silicon Valley, California, United States of America.

Somkenechukwu Mamah, founder of Code Ambassadors, an organisation dedicated to training young individuals in technology, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship skills, said the students were guided by him, their mentor.

He explained that it is a global competition that empowers young girls to leverage technology to address pressing issues in their communities.

Mamah, who spoke with THISDAY in Port Harcourt, said, “This year, nearly 11,000 girls from 69 countries participated, developing 3,200 tech-based solutions to community problems. Our team, Smart Elites, stood out with their innovative mobile application, AgriConnect, designed to combat food insecurity in Nigeria by connecting farmers with free land spaces.

“They competed with teams from Spain, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada, Kazakhstan, Japan, the United States and 62 other countries.”

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture released a shocking report, saying that 31.5 million Nigerians will suffer from a food crisis and acute hunger between June and August this year, 2024.

Mamah stressed that the solution to food insecurity in Nigeria “is for every region to produce its food, and 86 per cent of those we spoke to in our community expressed interest in farming but lacked the means or resources to start.”

Mamah added, “To achieve that, we developed AgriConnect, a mobile application connecting farmers, nearby landowners, and seedling sellers.”