The adverse effects of waste pollution in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. Even though there exist agencies to manage this problem, there still exists the problem of the delay in collecting such waste and its subsequent disposal. There is, therefore, a need to tackle this delay in a bid to ensuring a cleaner and healthier Nigeria.
As part of the continuous learning in the Innovate for Africa Program, we were groomed on a whole lot of aspects involving creativity and innovation. One particular area I would like to reflect on is the Hackathon.
Hackathon is any event of any duration (usually a short time) where people come together to solve problems. It provides an avenue for self-expression and creativity through innovation and technology. It is of general idea that hackathon is for programmers, coders and the likes or so I thought. But I came to realize that hackathon can happen in any field so long it entails developing innovative solutions to a problem.
During this hackathon, after a lot of brainstorming and harmonizing of different ideas of what problems we would be solving from my team, we came up with a problem we would be deliberating on. We were going to solve the incidence of environmental pollution in Nigeria.
We conducted primary market research using Lagos state as our reference point and interviewing residents in the state. We came to realize that the actual problem was caused by the delay experienced in collecting and disposing these waste. We realized that Nigerian are actually faced with the problem of delay in collecting and disposing of this waste. These wastes could stay piled up in a place for weeks and even months thereby making environmental pollution inevitable. Sometimes, the rain comes and meets these piled up waste, turning the sight into an eyesore. By this time, the whole environment would have been messed up, trash containers full, drainage flowing with waste which leads to blockage of the drainages. Our challenge therefore was to come up with an innovative approach to tackle this problem.
We engaged in design thinking: this is a process for solving problem by prioritizing the consumer needs above all else. It relies on observing with empathy how people interact with their environment and employs an iterative hands-on approach to creative innovative thinking. We engaged in this design thinking because we understood that whatever solution we would come up with had to be consumer-centred, i.e how the consumer would actually engage with the product rather than how we thought they would engage with it. It would enable us to create a lasting and innovative value for consumers.
We did all this and came up with a great idea. This idea was to be pitched on the hackathon day which was judged by a panel of judges from Harvard and MIT. It was our first time ever to present a pitch; we were nervous, but confident at what we had put together.
Our product: we came up with an idea to develop an application where users can order for waste pickups as soon as they have them instead of piling them up causing environmental pollution. The application would contain information and address of users and upon successful placing of waste pick-up order, a pickup time would be confirmed to you to ensure effectiveness and efficiency.
I have attached a summary of the pitch deck below.
After the pitch, we got great feedback from the judges which helped us refine our approach and process. We went further to enter the Lagos Urban Innovation challenge 2020, and our entry made it to the second stage of the competition. This was a great achievement for us because this was our very first time, and even if we did not win or even reach the final stage, we made it to the second stage on our first ever attempt. We are hopeful that with adequate modifications and abstract creativity and innovation, we would one day come up with good solutions to real problems that would help the world at large.