The 2026 robotics challenge for young Nigerian innovators, part of the 2026 Abuja Hackathon, turned out an eye-opener for many visitors.
Some young innovators, aside winning top awards in drone and robotics competitions, made other bold statements concerning nigeria’s technological future.
This they did by showcasing technological innovations designed to solve societal challenges.
Some of the innovators told NAN these their prototypes when fully developed would provide the needed answers to the technological problems facing the nation.
For example, Fatima Kalembe, a member of the Team Alpha Flyers, who developed a drone project, said the project highlighted the potential of Nigerian youths to collaborate and create innovative solutions.
According to her, the drone demonstration showed how technology could move beyond recreation to solving real-life problems.
“It’s not just us pushing balls, going through gates, but it’s all showing how far Nigerian minds can go and how much we can achieve if we just come together.
“We have problems in the society and hopefully in the future with our youths, our great minds and our innovative and creative selves, we can find a way to solve them,” she said.
Another team member from Alpha Flyers, Karma Mohammed, said the team trained for only two weeks before the competition but remained committed to excellence.
Mohammed expressed excitement over the recognition and pledged improved performance in future competitions.
Also speaking, Emmanuel Offornagoro, a member of the Everest team in the Robotic Senior Category Challenge, said the success of the project was driven by collaboration among team members who combined ideas to develop an effective robotic solution.
Offornagoro explained that the robot was designed to move objects representing people to safer locations during emergencies.
“This is a robot controlled by our drivers here to move objects into their specific places. These objects are just imagined as people.
“We could build a robot that saves citizens when it’s needed and then move where it needs to be controlled. That’s just what the robot was meant to do,’ he said.
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Mary-Claret Onyenwe, a member of Team Spark, which also showcased innovations at the Robotics challenge, and ended up clinching the best in the Robotic Senior Category Challenge, commended the team work displayed in actualising the win.
Onyenwe, whose team also worked on the Rescue Naija project, said the project-in form of a robot, was programmed as a rescue prototype capable of assisting security and emergency operations.
According to her, the innovation could be adapted for both rural and urban environments to address national challenges, particularly insecurity.
“Our team came first in the robotics game. So our robot can actually rescue because it has been programmed and all the programmes have been stored in it.
“It has been programmed to rescue human beings. It’s just a prototype. It could actually be developed to rescue human beings also.
“It can be replicated in both rural and urban areas. So I think this project can solve our problems as a nation.
“It can solve the problem of insecurity and this depends on the design programme installed in the robots,” she said.
The robotics challenge was an initiative of Abba Saidu, and he said the initiative was aimed at empowering Nigerian youths with practical technological skills needed to develop solutions tailored to the country’s challenges.
The Hackathon he added was designed to promote collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and innovation among young people.
“We know that robotics is the future of economies or nations, and that’s why we’re bringing in this aspect of robotics.
“It also involves that coding aspect of it, where children can really code autonomously to see how they can do so many projects so that they can execute a thing”, he said.
Cami Ezenwa is a Writer, Editor, Publicist, Biographer and Journalism Trainer
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