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Plateau State has rewarded the three top winners of its just concluded #COVID19Plateau Developers Challenge where about 23 startups pitched.
The ‘Plateau COVID-19 Developers Challenge’ is designed to inspire developers in the provision of solutions for saving lives, communities, and businesses. The challenge targets to get Nigeria’s tech community provide solutions round defeating COVID-19 on three focus areas that capture the global challenge of: Saving lives; Saving communities; and Saving businesses.
Yen Express, http://www.yenexpress.net/, a virtual medical hub for providing people with their medications or prescription during the pandemic period, emerged as the overall winner.
The second went to iSabi (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.isabi.user), and VirCare (www.vir-care.com) was adjudged third by about nine judges wqho accessed the pitches virtually viathe Zoom app.
iSabi allows people to report Covid 19 cases and also connects the people with healthcare providers while VirCare is a virtual community for tracking and reporting COVID-19 cases and also creating awareness about the pandemic.
The three winners had a total of N350, 000 cash prizes as initial support to aid the provision of their solutions. The winning prize for Yen Express is N200, 000.
The Plateau State ICT Development Agency (PICTDA) sponsored the challenge as part of Governor Simon Lalong’s commitment to leverage technology and local skill sets to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plateau State currently has three confirmed tested cases of COVID-19, a very low portion of the national figure as at today with confirmed cases of 2,802, 417 recoveries and 93 deaths. The global figure is grimmer with 3.58 million confirmed cases, 1.16 million recovered cases and over 251, 000 deaths according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Through the#COVID19Plateau Developers Challenge, Governor Simon Lalong has demonstrated his commitment and faith in the capacity of young people in Plateau State and indeed Nigeria to provide workable solutions that can develop the country,” said Director General of the PICTDA, Daser David.
“The top three candidates were selected based on their performance and the status of their project – all fully launched. The government will find other means of engaging and supporting the remaining two in the top five position,” added David.
