The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has awarded selected three winners for the Nigeria Covid-19 innovation challenge.
The three winners of the NITDA Covid-19 innovation challenge are Algorizmi-N1,000,000; Smart Chamber N750,000; and Myclinic.ng. The three startups got N1 million, N750,000, and N500,000 respectively.
However, Covid Tracker came 4th while COViRR 20 finished in the 5th position.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said the challenge was part of the National Information Technology Development Strategy in an “attempt to implement our national digital economy policy for digital Nigeria 2020-2030.
“When we developed this plan, there was nothing like Covid-19 but with Covid-19 today there was a need for us to fast track and facilitate the implementation.”
He noted that ICT would play a critical role in contact tracing and physical distancing stating: “With digital technology today where we promote physical distancing many diseases cannot be contacted and we will be able to conduct our activities effectively and efficiently.”
He added that, “with digital technologies we will be able to curtail the spread of Covid-19 significantly and we will be able to enforce and integrate contact tracing and many more.
He therefore directs NITDA and other parastatals under his supervision to work on research grant in order to support any innovative idea towards Covid-19.
“The solutions proposed so far and the successful ones among the innovators that pitched previously you should look at incubating the solutions and donating the solutions to the federal government through relevant ministries and parastatals like the ministry of health, NCDC and presidential taskforce,” he said.
On protection of data collected through these technologies, the minister stated that, “whatever we do online, we have legislations that will guide us on how we collect data and how we manage data.”
Director General of NITDA Abdullahi Inuwa stated that the event was to crowd-source for novel ideas that can help contain the novel Coronavirus ravaging our world.
“The virus is causing health crisis, and the lockdown needed to keep the virus in check is causing economic crisis.
The Nigeria Covid-19 innovation challenge is aimed at identifying innovative ideas from our talented youth, incubate, prototype and develop the ideas into a digital solutions that can help us contain the virus and prepare us for post Covid-19 era.
