How it started

I have been having love for mobile phones since my childhood where whenever I got a chance to access a phone, I immediately explored how it operates certain things rather than playing games or listening to music. As I grew up, I was a one stop center for people in the village who wanted help with their phones’ software such as setting up new phones, changing keyboard preferences, restricting mobile data, optimizing storage and adjustments of other phone features. Even though I didn’t study tech related subjects in high school, my interest in mobile phones continued to develop to the extent I wanted to study computer science in the university so I can develop mobile apps to address some of the pressing real-world problems.

Agriculture as a niche

After completing high school, I got government scholarship to pursue my studies in agronomy at a local university where I regularly got engaged with farmers of all levels and worked in agricultural research a few months after graduating from the university. Through community engagements while I was a student and working in research, I came to realize that one of the major factors leading to poor food production in my community was constrained Information and Communications Technologies where farmers didn’t have access to updated farming information, markets and tools leading to inefficient farming practices. Since then, I am keen to contribute to addressing pressing farming challenges by harnessing the power of emerging technologies.

With my never-ending love for mobile phones, I thought that the best way I could help farmers was developing innovative mobile apps. As a result, I started teaching myself mobile development most specifically android development and luckily won a scholarship to study credited Computer Science courses for one year at an American online university, where I gained fundamental skills in IT.

How it is today

After about one year of hard work, I developed an android app that helps farmers use precisely calculated agrochemicals to mitigate the impact of maluses of chemical pesticides and fertilizers on farmers and the environment in my community. This app was awarded by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and featured in its youth solutions report 2020 as one of 50 youth-led global innovative solutions. Also, after observing how farmers were struggling amid Covid-19, where they couldn’t meet agronomists and take their produce to the markets as movements were restricted to contain the spread of the virus, I developed another app that connect farmers to markets and agronomists in real time. This app was awarded by the local government as one of the innovative solutions that mitigated the Covid-19 impact in my country.

The way forward

Today as a passionate mobile developer, I am glad that I have been able to impact thousands of farmers in my community thanks to technology and I am looking forward to bringing to life more innovations towards sustainable food production in my community and sub-Saharan countries.