A 24-year-old Computer Science graduate, Richard Igbiriki from Bayelsa State has won the MTN Nigeria hackathon challenge for developing ‘Bloodshare’, a mobile app that provides hospitals with location-based blood donors, allowing patients to quickly find donors in times of emergency.
MTN rewarded Igbiriki efforts with a cheque of N100, 000; a laptop, $15,000 Cloud Facility Credit, and access to receive pre-equity funding up to $25,000 from Chinook Capital Investment Fund, in the just concluded MTN Nigeria 2019 edition of ‘ 21 Days of Y’ello Care’ held at the company’s head office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
One of the highlights of this year’s 21 Days of Y’ello care was a hackathon challenge where young software developers were tasked to create critical solutions to solve health challenges leveraging technology.
The annual event provided an opportunity for MTN employees to participate in various community projects. Guided by the theme, “Creating a Brighter Future for the youths,” this corporate social responsibility initiative was focused on youth empowerment, with special focus on developing Nigeria’s burgeoning tech ecosystem for greater impact on national development.
Ferdi Moolman, MTN Nigeria’s CEO, said by dedicating several hours towards reaching out and partnering with schools, skill acquisition centres and communities shows how much the communication company’s staffers cares about its host communities.
“Visiting one of the schools brought home the realisation of how blessed we are to live, work and operate in Nigeria. We are here today to count our blessings and celebrate the opportunity to give back to our communities where we serve. This is the real spirit of MTN and what we are about,” said Moolman.
Another laudable highlight of this year’s initiative was the focus on raising public awareness on mental health. An 8km walk was held in Lagos,
Abuja and Kano attended by hundreds of MTN staff in conjunction with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative. MTN also held a digital media training session for a select group of young Nigerians to educate them on how to become suicide prevention media advocates.
