A team of five Nigerian girls (known as Save A Soul) has just been announced the winner of the Junior Gold Awards at the 2018 Technovation World Challenge worth $10,000. The event was held in California, USA between 6 – 8 August 2018. The girls developed a Fake Drug Detector app (called FD-Detector), to help fight fake drugs in Nigeria. The app leverages a drug's barcode to verify its authenticity and expiration date.

With over 2000 apps submitted for the competition, this win was not an easy one. The Challenge held yearly for girls aged 10 to 18 tasks them to develop innovative solutions to practical problems. In the run up to the final event this year, over 19,000 girls from 115 countries participated; and around 121 girls from over 50 countries made it to the finals. The Save A Soul team initially won the Africa regional competition held in Abuja, Nigeria in July 2018; before progressing to the finals in California. It is believed that further plans are now in progress to partner with the National Agency for Food & Drug Administration and Control (NDLEA); in order to roll out the app for wider use in Nigeria.

It is our aim at Dr Nonso Nnamoko Foundation (www.dnnfoundation.org) to continue progress along these lines. We believe that investments under our Technology strategy would create more opportunities and empower young people in Nigeria through technology.