Nigerian App Selected For Global Award Finals

A Nigerian team created that created Vergee App, has been selected for the Global Award Finals (Top 25) of the 2016 NASA Space Apps Challenge. Over 15,000 candidates across world took part in the contest and it has produced about 1,287 projects. The Nigerian team was selected in the Most Inspirational category after NASA experts and Challenge Owners narrowed the field from 322 projects to the best 25 Finalists.

Vergee is an e-mobile pastoralism app. Its aim is to help pastoral communities around the world preserve their livelihood, by providing them access to information and resources (e.g grass land, water, safe routes) to prepare and support their migration journey.

The lead programmer of the app took to Nairaland to share his happiness, where he noted that the key reason for the app is to help stop the Fulani herdsmen problem in Nigeria and a way to also provide Norman farmers with resources as they arrive in unknown locations. He also stated how proud he was to be representing Nigeria in the international competition.

In the chat, he explained thus: “My name is Ekpang Michael Etta, a graduate of the department of forestry and Wildlife University of Calabar. I was the lead programmer at the just-concluded NASA Space App Challenge 2016. My team (Team Amazing from Enugu) and I created the Vergee App to help stop the Fulani herdsmen problem in Nigeria while also providing Norman farmers with resources”

“We are so excited to say that our app just took one step closer as the Top 25 global finalists were announced this week for the NASA Space Apps Challenge. VERGEE was named as a Top 5 Finalist in the “Most Inspirational” project category, and is proud to be representing Nigeria in the international competition.

“With over 1200 projects this year created by over 15,000 participants, our project rose to the top — a testament to the innovative capacity of Nigerians. On the weekend of April 22–24, 2016, developers, makers, engineers, and entrepreneurs took on NASA-designed challenges, creating a diverse range of solutions” he said.

It is a great feat and we are looking forward to more, as Nigerians worldwide, are making the country proud. This is very innovative and encouraging.

Below is the app demo: