Nine-year-old Nigerian competes at AfricaHacks innovation competition

A nine-year Nigerian girl, Stephanie Ugochukwu, was the youngest participant to compete at the recently concluded AfricaHacks global competition.
 
Stephanie is not new to the tech scene. At a very young age, she was actively involved in many innovation labs and challenges like NaijaHacks in 2018 and 2019.
 
Speaking about her experience at AfricaHacks 2020, Stephanie said mentors at the AfricaHacks lab programme had enabled her to stay on top of the programme. When asked how she started out in techs, she said the support from her mother, who is also into techs, had proved invaluable, as she has been accompanying her for several hackathons since 2018.
 

Dr Andrew Nevin, Chief Economist of PWC West Africa, in his keynote address, said: “The challenge in Africa will be solved by young people,” and highlighted recent examples like AfricaHacks, where youths across Africa had taken a stand to create and innovate for a sustainable economy, adding that technologies and innovations were needed to solve challenges in society across different sectors.
 
Climax of the event was the grand finale of the competition, where formed teams were able to pitch their innovative projects in front of judges.