Women in Technology, Nigeria (WITIN) have organized a contest, requiring secondary school girls between the ages of 13 and 18 to focus their innovative abilities in constructing a mobile app.

The contestants are to work in groups of five, and would be trained two hours every week to develop a potential solution to a problem and create a mobile app to tackle it. Their assignment will include conducting market research and writing up business plans and proposals, thereby simulating the act of raising funds for the app development.

Each team would work with classroom teacher and a female mentor/ role model from the technology industry. They will be given until April to complete this task.

WITIN chairman, Mrs Martha Alade, says that this would teach the girls how to identify problems and create solution using technology, to meet the public needs.

“The girls will be taught life skills such as how to identify a problem, design and test a solution, collaborate with a team, and communicate to different audiences. It reinforces the following academic concepts: digital representation of information, algorithmic thinking and programming, and the societal impact of information and information technology,” she said.

“The app must solve a problem in their local community. This could be a health problem that affects their community, a social problem, or even a lack of a resource.

They will learn how to study their competition, identify ways in which they can gather users and earn revenue. Each team will be guided by a teacher from their school and a female mentor from the high tech industry to support and act as a role model for her team.”

Considering how fast the world is tumbling into a digital age, this exercise might very well prove to be a valuable lesson.