Nokia supports Social Innovation camp

Nokia Nigeria has reiterated its support for the Social Innovation Camp, which recently ended in Lagos.

Head of Communications, Nokia West Africa, Mr. Osagie Ogunbor disclosure this in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, saying that the support was in line with established reputation for innovation by the mobile manufacturer.

According to him, Nokia partnered with a social enterprise venture, Co-Creation Hub to provide a platform for young Nigerians to come up with business ideas that also address some of Nigeria’s social issues.

He noted that Co-Creation Hub had sought entries from Nigerians on how they could use mobile technology to set up businesses that address issues like the quality of education, health, combating corruption and deepening democracy.

He explained that the entries were reduced to six out of which three winners emerged after a 48-hour camping at the Pan-Africa University, Lagos.

Nokia, he said, alongside the likes of TBWA/Concepts allowed winners to use their platforms to transform the ideas into thriving businesses.

He said that a software developer, Mr. Segun Fodeke, won the first prize with his idea on how mobile devices could be used to track the performance of elected government officials against the promises they made while seeking elective positions.

The second position, Ogunbor said, went to Olusegun V. Sangowawa for her idea on using mobile technology to improve people’s access to health information.

Tosin Agboola’s entry clinched the third position with the idea, which seeks to use mobile phones platforms to alert Nigerians about wanted criminals rather the current use of newspapers, whose reach is quite limited due to poor literacy level and poverty.

He highlighted the fact that Nokia is particularly availing any of the winners who develops a mobile application, an opportunity to upload such on Ovi Store.

"Ovi store is Nokia’s proprietary platform from which millions of Nokia faithful can download applications, games, maps and music," he said.

Recalling that worldwide, there are at least 3 million downloads on Ovi store every day. Equally, Nokia’s Head of Marketing for West Africa, Mr. Reuben Onwubiko was quoted as saying that Ovi Store platform provides the winners a life-time opportunity to make money from the revenue from downloads all over the world.

"The onus is therefore on those who have entered for the competition to ensure that they come up with solutions that would be acceptable even beyond the shores of Nigeria," Onwubiko said.

Founded in 2008 in the UK, Social Innovation camp runs as process/event to create innovative applications of the web and mobile technology to solve social problems. Social innovation camps have been run London, Edinburg, Slovakia, Australia, South Korea, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Czech Republic. The Nigerian initiative is the first of its kind on the African continent.

Remmy Nweke:
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