Transforming Tech Ideas into Busines Programme
Report of Second Transforming tech ideas into business workshop
On the 15th and 16th of August, 2023. Centre for information technology and development CITAD organized a 2-day workshop for 30 youth, consisting of 20 males and 10 females on transforming tech ideas into business. The objective of the workshop was to expose the participants on how they could develop their ideas into businesses. The workshop focused on four key areas application of technology in four key areas. The workshop also allowed the participants to pitch their ideas.
Welcome remark:
During the opening session, Malam Isah Garba the Senior Programmes officer who represented the Executive Director of the organization gave the welcome remarks. In his remarks. he welcomed the participants as the few lucky applicants, to leverage the opportunity, especially in this digital world, as everyday new technologies are emerging.
The first day of the workshop was devoted to presentations by the facilitators on the focus key areas.
- Climate change (give summary of what presented under this topic)
- AgroTech(give summary of what presented under this topic)
- e-Health(give summary of what presented under this topic)
- Financial Technology (FinTech) (give summary of what presented under this topic)
The second day was ideation during which all the participants discussed their ideas. These ideas are presented in the table below.
Some of the ideas by participants:
| SN | Names | Idea |
| 1 | Iliyasu Aminu | Emergency call device |
| 2 | Hassan Muhammad | Water & Petrol cooking gas |
| 3 | Hussaini Muhammad | Rechargeable blender |
| 4 | Nafiu Ibrahim Mustapha | Fusion Cooking Gas |
| 5 | Salisu Muktar Ibrahim | DC Voltage Printer Solution |
| 6 | Abdulhamid Musa | Trading and representation of land and landed property on NFT (Non Fungible Tokens) |
| 7 | Muazzam Sani | Solar Turbo Engine Jet |
| 8 | Auwal Ibrahim Adamu | Online Learning Platform |
| 9 | Ibrahim Munkaila Adam | Phone tracker |
| 10 | Maryam S Sarkin ‘ya | Hepatitis Detecting Device |
| 11 | Hussaina Ibrahim Balarabe | Quick Errand |
| 12 | Auwal Yunus | Electric Walking Bike |
| 13 | Mujaheed Hassan | Medication Reminder |
| 14 | Halimat Tijjani Isah | Utensil Online Business |
Projects presented by participants:
In addition to the idea prresentations, others who were part of the previous workshop presnetnend their projects. These include:
- Khalifa Aminu’s Mini Outdoor Radio Antenna:
Khalifa’s project involved the creation of a mini outdoor radio antenna. This innovation is notable for its practical application in enhancing radio signal reception. The antenna aims to improve communication and connectivity in remote areas, ensuring that individuals can stay connected regardless of their location, he says that his ambition is to create big outdoor antenna that will amplify wifi network to more than 1 KM
- Twin Boys’ Water-Powered Gas Cooker:
The gas cooker developed by the twin boys Hassan and Hussain presents an innovative approach to cooking technology. By utilizing water as a source of fire instead of traditional gas, this project has the potential to promote sustainability and reduce the reliance on non-renewable resources. The implications of this innovation could have a significant impact on household energy consumption.
- Nafiu Ibrahim’s Electric Car and Surveillance Airplane:
Nafiu Ibrahim’s contributions to the projects are nothing short of remarkable. His small electric car equipped with guided systems showcases advancements in transportation technology. This project has implications for urban mobility and eco-friendly transportation solutions. Additionally, his creation of an undetectable surveillance airplane raises questions about the future of surveillance technology and its potential applications in various sectors.
- The Cardboard Mini Modern Smart House:
One of the participants demonstrated creativity by constructing a physical house using cardboard. This project signifies the potential for affordable housing solutions and sustainable construction practices. The ambition to create a mini modern smart house indicates the drive to combine innovation and technology to address real-world challenges.
- Diverse Ideas from Various Participants:
The projects presented at the workshop are a testament to the diversity of ideas generated by the participants. The range of innovations spans across technology, sustainability, transportation, and construction, showcasing the participants’ multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving.
The projects showcased at the CITAD hardware lab reflect the remarkable creativity and ingenuity of the participants. Each project addresses unique challenges and demonstrates innovative solutions with the potential to reshape industries and contribute to societal progress. The CITAD hardware lab’s commitment to fostering creativity and innovation has yielded a collection of groundbreaking ideas that deserve recognition and further exploration. As the participants continue to refine their projects and explore new avenues, it is evident that their contributions will have a lasting impact on technology and innovation.
Comments:
One participant suggested that people’s ideas should always be good ideas because a person should not do something that will not bring any progress in society or solve any problem. And the facilitators have advised the participants on how to deal with the challenges of any new technology when it comes out. Also, this presents a great opportunity to bring about business Integration through technology interfacing.
Expectations:
The participants are expected to come up with ideas around the focus areas, as there are more opportunities most especially now that the world is campaigning on green energy, and reduce the usage of fossil fuels and any other thing the promote global warming, agrotech for food security and pest control, eHealth as we can see in the developed countries how robots are changing the narration in the health sector, electronic medical records for long time record, telemedicine etc. And also in the financial sector as people now are getting more use of technologies to buy goods and services, the use of digital currency is not left behind.
Next step:
The participants were informed of the existing of CITAD Hardware lab, where they can be visiting in other to implement their ideas, and if they don’t have the technical knowledge, a mentor will be assigned to them based on the field of idea they have. Also we will be engaging them from time to time to monitor the progress of their ideas implementation to reality.
Some pictures of the workshop
Links to media reports
https://primetimenews.ng/citad-trains-youths-on-transforming-tech-ideas-into-businesses/?amp=1
Report of 2-Days Workshop on Transforming Tech Ideas into Business by the Centre for Information Technology and Development
On 31st January and 1st February 2023
The Centre for Information Technology and Development organized a 2-day workshop which was held on the date of 31st January and 1st February 2023, with the attendance of 30 youths which included 10 females and 20 males.
The workshop started with opening remarks by CITAD executive director Engineer YZ Ya’u Represented by Engineer Kamal Umar says that the workshop was aimed to form a technology hub that paved the way for youth to showcase their talent and idea into reality, the use of technology to solve real-world problems needs proper utilization of technology and innovations, the first day of the workshop was facilitated by engineer Kamaluddeen Umar who discussed topic on using modern tech infrastructure in the health care system (E-Health), he demonstrated case studies on world health care system using the technological system.
Abdulrahman Babatunde followed Engineer Kamal with his paper on climate change, Abdurrahman actively discussed with the participants’ different aspects of using tech tools to develop a solution in our country and the rest of the world solution in addressing the climate change issues.
The participants were grouped into three segments (A, B, C), all the groups were tasked to discuss and come up with a proposed solution from their own perspective on using tech space to address current social problems in the healthcare system and climate change.
Also some of the participants/Facilitators exhibit their innovations,
- Khalipha Aminu: Unmanned aerial vehicle
- Fatima: Gender violence reporting site
- Fatima Abubakar and Aisha Abdullahi Nayayo: Grocery App
- Abdulrahman Babatunde: Food security
Below are some Ideas provided by the group of participants in the first day of the workshop.
| E-HEALTH | ||
| GROUP A | An application that patients can order for drugs or any nearby pharmacy. | Idea |
| GROUP B | An app or platform that patient, pharmacist, doctor, admin, cashier can meet virtually. The patient can check the available doctor, pharmacist, admin and cashier to book an appointment. | Incubation |
| GROUP C | An emergency application that users (patient) can locate or track available doctor or health officer (in the case of emergency) registered on the platform. The application will have a GPS tracking system so that the patient or user can locate the doctor. | Idea |
| CLIMATE CHANGE | ||
| GROUP A | N/A | |
| GROUP B | N/A | |
| GROUP C | Device that can alert and measure the amount of CO2 present in an environment or present in the atmosphere. | |
The second day was facilitated by Muhammad Bello Yahaya who discussed overview of Financial Technology, the evolution and the technology behind the application implementation, cashless policy it benefits to society and most especially in our Nigeria of today which we all experience the new CBN policy, and Suhail Sani (Agro Tech)
The participants were grouped again on the second day into three; they discussed some existing problems and how they can use technical ideas to solve the problems.
Below are the ideas provided in the second day of the workshop
| FINTECH | ||
| GROUP A | To create a small online banking system (transaction wallet) and organize advocacy via social media for other banks. | Idea |
| GROUP B | ||
| GROUP C | To develop an application or new system for paying taxi and tricycle drivers using QR Code. | Idea |
| AGRO TECH | ||
| GROUP A | ||
| GROUP B | GonApp: IoT Application that farmers can use to manage all the processes of the food chain. | Idea |
| GROUP C | A device that can monitor farm conditions by measuring the amount of water present in the soil and whether fertilizer is needed for the soil or a part of the farmland. | Idea |
Next step by the executive director, citad Dr. Y. Z. Yau
We discovered that in Nigeria, a lot of youths engage in coming up with different technological ideas but in the long run, they leave and bury the idea. The aim of this workshop is to gather the youth who have ideas or can come up with ideas, visualize them with our tech officers and connect them to our networks for startup. Also, we understand that many successful techpreneurs abroad start with coming up with ideas and from the ideas they drive values to their community which at the end they start businesses through that.
We believe all of the ideas you came up with will be built up and turned into businesses. The tech hub is always open for you and you are encouraged to be coming here to work on your ideas. The next thing is that we are going to look into your ideas, help you visualize them and set up mentoring training on it.
On his closing remark, Malam Ahmad Yakasai advised the participants to drop the attitude of just attending the workshop and go, but to practice what they learnt from the facilitators.
Attached is the group picture of the workshop
