Nigerian girls win gold at global tech competition with app that spots fake drugs

A team of five Nigerian junior secondary school girls, who go by the name Save A Soul, has won gold at the junior level of the Technovation World Pitch Summit held at Silicon Valley in California, U.S.A. on Thursday where they presented an app they built that identified fake pharmaceutical drugs in Nigeria.

The competition organized by American tech non-profit, Technovation, invites girls to identify a problem in their community and then solve it using in teams by building a mobile app and a business plan.

Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye from the Anambra State qualified for the finals with their app, FD-Detector (Fake Drug Detector) which leverages a drug’s barcode to verify its authenticity and expiration date.

They successfully implemented their business plan using the app by partnering with NAFDAC (National Agency for Food & Drug Administration and Control), an agency responsible for regulating drugs in Nigeria, to market the app and help save lives.

Save A Soul were the only African finalists in the junior category of 6 teams and won a scholarship of $12,000. The win will go a long way to promote the app which will help reduce the infiltration of the pharmaceutical market with fake drugs.

Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo congratulated the girls and their mentor Uchenna Onwuamaegbu-Ugwu, the founder of Edufun Technik STEM Center.

Technovation prides itself as “entrepreneurs, mentors, and educators looking to teach girls everywhere the skills they need to change the world with technology”.