Help the needy now with a click – app inventor, Sodangi
Text by Fatima Joji he evolving world of apps creation is fast placing some geniuses in the millionaire or even billionaire clique. Apps (software applications) are what drive smartphones as a February 2015 survey released by The Economist, shows that half of the adult population owns a smartphone, and by 2020, that will skyrocket to 80percent. With the several apps being created, a 21-year-old Nigerian inventor, did a smart thing by creating a smartphone charity app. Abduljaleel Sodangi, an architecture student at Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University, invented an app that makes giving to those in need a lot easier.
His talent and efforts were recognized earlier this month at a prestigious event held in Abuja by the Nigerian Next Generation
Summit, a non-
Tprofit organisation for youth empowerment and humanitarian aid, which recognizes the talent of young inventors. Through his App, ‘Givee’, individuals can send essential day-to-day items to those in need. He said, “We wanted to keep it simple, so we narrowed it down to basic food, education (stationery) and clothing.
“You sign up easily with your mail and choose a meal package for example. You then select how many packages you wish to buy and scan your credit card to pay. As soon as it’s delivered, a photo is taken and sent back to the donor,” Sodangi explained.
The app, which will be free, is now in its final stages of about 95percent completion, and may hit the public sphere by year end.
The young inventor said he hit a few bumps on the track to creating the app. It was new territory for a non engineer, so he believed that “apps of such magnitude would take a lot of time to learn and implement.”
Sodangi said after a couple of developer failed his team, “We got another developer, but to trust him, we gave him another test app to design. That app, ‘AutoDuel’ is already on the AppStore and recently on the Google Play store. It’s for comparing car performance and ratings, and even listening to the engine sounds.
“Later, we felt we could trust the developer and we gave him the Givee job. One of my uncles Sadiq, gave a contribution to payment,” he mentioned.
He maintains that the implementation part is probably the hardest but he is confident that “together, with Next Generation Nigeria, we shall settle that.”
Sodangi said he was from a family that does a lot of charity and together with his friend Ozan in Istanbul, the idea came to fruition.
At his leisure, Sodangi loves inspirational books but hardly reads novels for he is busy either ‘learning new software’ or watching inspiring movies.
His only regret would be not following his dream at an earlier stage of his life. So his advice to young ones would be to follow their passion. “Your brain is limitless, all you need to do is fill it with your passion’ and ‘once you have a passion to learn something, your brain would enjoy it continuously,’ he said.