After winning the 2025 Technovation Global Summit (Beginning Division) with an artificial intelligence (AI) app that addresses distracted and sleepy driving, two Nigerian girls have put their country on the map of the world's technological advancements.  

The prodigies, Ifunanya Gabriella Okoye and 10-year-old Akachukwu Blessed Nwachukwu, both from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, created Stay Woke, an AI-powered smartphone app that employs voice interaction and facial recognition to identify driver fatigue in real time and send out alerts to avoid collisions.  

Competing as Team Appsolute, the duo outshone formidable challengers from Japan, Spain, Canada, and Peru to claim the world title at the competition’s grand finals.

Over 33,000 people from 117 countries participated in Technovation, the largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls aged 8 to 18, this year. Of those, 11,000 completed the program, and more than 3,200 tech-based solutions were created.

Their mentor, Somkenechukwu Mamah, founder of Code Ambassadors Academy, described the win as a breakthrough for African innovation. “This victory proves that innovation knows no age or boundary. Akachukwu and Ifunanya have shown resilience, creativity, and courage, demonstrating that young people in Nigeria and across Africa can compete and win on the global stage,” he said.

The young innovators, trained through Code Ambassadors Academy—a STEM-accredited platform that has equipped over 7,000 Nigerian children with coding, robotics, AI, and design skills—credited their success to their mentor’s guidance and their parents’ support.

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