Fides Media Living the Faith
By Sunny A. Ijomah
The Anambra State Governor Chief Willie Obiano has congratulated five students of Regina Pacis Secondary School, Onitsha a Catholic girls’ school owned by the Archdiocese of Onitsha, who recently won Gold in the World Technovation Challenge held in San Francisco, USA.
The team of five girls namely Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye defeated the contemporaries in nine technologically advanced countries including the USA, India, Turkey, China, Uzbekistan, Spain, among others, to clinch gold in the challenge.
At the competition held in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, USA, the World Champions who represented Nigeria and Africa, won with a mobile application called FD-detector which they developed to help tackle the challenge of fake pharmaceutical products.
Congratulating the girls, Governor Obiano who expressed happiness at the great news, said the victory is consistent with what his government has been doing in education in supporting mission schools and their community counterparts in the area of basic education.
The Governor said he has given them one week to familiarize themselves with happenings in the United States before they come back for a befitting reception.
He noted that it is no surprise that the State is winning laurels all over the world in education as his government has continued to make valuable investments in improving the quality of education made available to students across the state.
It will be recalled that when the students emerged African champions, Governor Obiano had hosted them at the Government House where he encouraged them to go to the World competition and make the state proud.
Technovation is a programme that allows young students across the globe to use robotics and coding languages to profer solutions to problems in the society.
Meanwhile, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has congratulated a team of teenage Nigerian girls who represented the country and won the 2018 Technovation world pitch junior division in San Francisco, USA.
In a tweet on Saturday, the Acting President said these young girls in Junior Secondary School, developed a mobile application called ‘FD Detector’ to tackle the problems of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.
Professor Osinbajo congratulated them and said the whole of Nigeria is proud of them. “We are proud of you”, and also congratulated the team leader, Uchenna Onwuamaegbu-Ugwu, the founder of Edufun Technik STEM Center.
The young Nigerian girls from Regina Pacis Model Secondary School in Onitsha, Anambra State, were selected from 2,000 mobile app developers to represent Africa at the world pitch.
According to Team Save-A-Soul, Nigeria has one of the largest markets for fake drugs, and the teenage girls plan to partner with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), using the app, to tackle this challenge.