BADAGRY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL WINS MAIDEN ‘CODE LAGOS HACKATHON’ COMPETITION

Badagry Senior High School’s Shark Byte Group has emerged winner of the maiden edition of the ‘Code Lagos Hackathon’ competition in the senior category.

Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State, in his address at the event, said the State government is committed to reaching its goal to make coding knowledge available to One Million Lagosians by 2020 in fulfilment of the collective dream of turning Lagos into a Smart City that is compliant with global best practices.

Ambode, represented at the event by his Deputy, Mrs. Idiat Adebule, declared that the State government will ensure that the present generation of youths lead the charge of establishing Lagos as the technology-development hub for the African continent.

Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, the Special Adviser to Governor Ambode on Education, expressed delight at the level of intelligence displayed by participants throughout the competition and lauded the present administration for launching the initiative two years ago.

While reaffirming the State government’s determination to train One Million Lagos residents by 2020, he said the maiden hackathon competition was organised to celebrate two years of ‘Code Lagos’.

According to him, “Today, we have over 648 government and private schools that have coding centres and 46 out-of-school coding centres in Lagos. Seeing the kind of apps our students are developing, we are confident that we are on the right path in ensuring a smarter Lagos”.

“For Lagos to run efficiently, technology must be included and we already have technology companies who are willing to nurture these young minds”, he added.

The ‘Code Lagos Hackathon’ competition required participants to develop mobile applications to help enhance socio-economic development in Lagos State.

Representatives of Badagry Senior High School, Shark Byte, came first for developing a waste management mobile app called “Recycle It”, for the purpose of enhancing waste management and recycling process by connecting Lagos residents with waste disposal and recycling agents.

The Government Technical College, Agidingbi came second with a health emergency app, ‘Health App’ aimed at providing emergency health care to victims while Childville Senior Secondary School, Ogudu came third for developing another health app ‘Care Kit’ for providing fast health tips, treatment and consultancy to users.

A cash prize of N2 million was given to the winner of the senior category (Shark Byte) to fund the project, while N1 million and N750,000 were given to the winners of second and third positions respectively.