MTN 21-day Y’ello Care ends, rewards hackathon challenge winner

MTN Nigeria’s 2019 edition of the 21 Days of Y’ello Care has ended with rewards for a software developer, Richard Igbiriki, for creating an app ‘Bloodshare’, that provides hospitals with location-based blood donors.

The MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ferdi Moolman, made this known in a statement in Lagos on Tuesday.

“The annual event provides an opportunity for telecoms service provider employees to participate in various community projects, guided by the theme ‘Creating a Brighter Future for the Youths’.

“This corporate social responsibility initiative is focused on youth empowerment, with special focus on developing Nigeria’s burgeoning tech ecosystem, for greater impact in national development.

“As such, one of the highlights of this year’s 21 Days of Y’ello Care was a hackathon challenge, where young software developers were tasked to create critical solutions to health problems using technology.

“A 24-year-old Computer Science graduate, Richard Igbiriki from Bayelsa, developed the winning app – ‘BloodShare’, a mobile app that provides hospitals with location-based blood donors, allowing patients to quickly find donors in times of emergency,’’ he said.

Moolman said that for his (Igbiriki) efforts, he received a cheque of N100,000 from MTN; a laptop, $15,000 Cloud Facility Credit and access to receive pre-equity funding up to $25,000 from Chinook Capital Investment Fund.

He noted that another laudable highlight of this year’s initiative was the focus on raising public awareness on Mental Health.

He said that an 8-km walk was held in Lagos, Abuja and Kano, attended by hundreds of MTN staff, in conjunction with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative.

The MTN chief said that a digital media training session was held for a select group of young Nigerians, to educate them on how to become suicide-prevention media advocates.

Moolman thanked the staff for dedicating several hours toward reaching out and partnering with schools, skill acquisition centres and communities, to show them how much MTN cares.

“Visiting one of the schools brought home the realisation of how blessed we are to live, work and operate in Nigeria.

“We are here today to count our blessings and celebrate the opportunity to give back to our communities, where we serve. This is the real spirit of MTN and what we are about,’’ he said.