10-Year-Old Nigerian Girl Wins Ericsson’s ‘Girls Who Innovate 2018′ Competition

Miss Kambinachi Kanu, a 10-year-old Nigerian primary school student has emerged winner of the 2018 edition of Ericsson’s Girls who Innovate competition under the 9-12-year-old category. Themed ‘the Future of Education’, this is the 2nd edition of the competition and Ericsson’s ninth annual participation in the ’Girls in ICT Day’ across the Middle East and Africa.

10-year old Nigerian Wins Ericsson’s Girls Who Innovate Competition https://t.co/Abj8SoiPU1 pic.twitter.com/XazZ2MZJZu

— AP News (@apnewsngr) July 13, 2018

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Prior to the finals, Ericsson received several entries from many innovators between the age 9-18 globally. Kambinachi Kanu, a final year primary school pupil of Temple Preparatory School, Ilupeju, Lagos, Nigeria made it all the way to the finals and emerged the global winner in her category. Kambinachi’s winning idea is aimed at children in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps across Nigeria.

The innovative idea involves the donation of fairly used tablets to these children to ensure that they can continue their education communicating with tutors via an e-learning platform in a safe environment while classroom learning can be limited to days when there is assured security.

This is really an effective innovation should it properly implemented as it would serve over 600 thousand children (28% of the total 1.8 million displaced persons) across Nigeria. 

She would be receiving a job shadow day with an Ericsson technical employee, an Ericsson blog/social media feature, and a 1,000 EUR star prize. Aside Kambinachi, there was also another African, a Ghanaian in the 16-18 years category that made it to the finals and was a part of the 6 regional winners chosen.

Girish Johar, Head of Human Resources within Ericsson Middle East and Africa says,

Ericsson remains committed to advancing and promoting technology innovations in the Middle East and Africa. On a global scale, we’re also working towards ensuring that girls interested in pursuing a career in ICT are empowered to overcome discrimination, stereotypes and other gender norms the society might throw at them. This is because we believe that the more diverse and inclusive we are, the more innovative and visionary will we be as a company and building the next generation of ICT leaders is just one step in that direction.

About Ericsson ‘Girls Who Innovate’ initiative

The “Girls Who Innovate” challenge is an Ericsson Innovation Awards competition in celebration of Girls in ICT Day supported by the International Telecommunication Union. The initiative aims to support the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, especially the two of which relate to diversity and inclusion; Goals four and five – Quality Education and Gender Equality respectively. Ericsson also has a worldwide mandate for its workforce to be made up of at least 30% women by the year 2020.