About Twenty-Seven students from High Schools across the country participated in a three-week boot camp to find technological solutions to Ghana’s agricultural challenges.
The event organized by Nsesa Foundation under its flagship project, iSWEST, saw 17 boys and 10 girls camped in the University of Ghana for a three-week intensive training in solution driven IT and engineering projects.
After receiving hands-on training in course areas of Computer Programming, Arduino, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, a contest was set among the participants in four groups to develop innovative solutions to real-life problems in Ghana’s agricultural sector.
The teams were; Paragon which presented Aquarius; a smart irrigation device for greenhouse farmers, Genius 5 prototyped Farmerton; an online organic grocery store for health-conscious consumers, AgroModo presented DuaYie; a personalised virtual Agric extension service for local farmers and AQUAtech prototyped StemAq; a smart fish pond management system for fish farmers.
At the end of the contest assessed by Mr. William Senyo, CEO of Impact Hub and Dr Alfred Yankson, Physics Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, team Paragon emerged winners of the competition with their Aquarius project.
They were awarded an iSWEST Innovation Kit as well as mentorship to further develop their solution into a startup.
One of the organizers, Victor Kumbol in an interview with Citi News said the team is made up young Ghanaian professionals that are passionate about creating change by promoting a culture of innovation.
He added that “over the past 4 years, we’ve impacted more than 100 students directly through our programs: our students have developed 10 team projects that have addressed problems in Ghana, our alumni have started 2 entrepreneurial ventures and won 10 major awards for their ventures including the MTN Apps Challenge and Education Startup of the Year. Two of our notable alumni Princess Allotey (iSWEST ‘14) and Eric Vondee (iSWEST ‘14) are already impacting others and making news headlines!”
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By: King Nobert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana