Abeokuta Grammar School emerges national winner of Global Diamond Challenge's for Social Innovation Category

A team of three students from Abeokuta Grammar School in Ogun State has emerged the national winner in the Social and Innovation Category at the just concluded National Pitch Event for the Diamond Challenge.

The event which was held at the Youth Development Centre of The Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library featured shortlisted 15 teams and schools from Ogun Oyo, Lagos, Edo, Ebonyi and FCT and were intensely judged by independent experts both from the academic and industrial walks of life.

The judging process which finally announced Justice Nigeria Project from Abeokuta Grammar School, Ogun State as the National winner and the Global Semi Finalist with other top winners in 28 cities of the world would later converge at the Horn Entrepreneurship Summit in University of Delaware to compete for the top 3 global prizes in April 2019.

Justice Nigeria is a social innovation concept aimed at addressing teenage sexual menace such as assault, rape, molestation and child labour. The team however designed a dedicated website launched as www.justnig.org.ng to connect the victims between 8-17 years and their saviours such as Counselors, lawyers and human rights activists for counselling or prosecution.

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Speaking at the event, Ayodele Odeogbola, the head of Global Partnerships for TedPrime Hub Nigeria and the Representative of University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship Team, explained that the top winning teams across the globe would now compete with compete for the global prizes of the sum of $11,000, $9000 and $5,500 respectively as well as networking opportunities.

While presenting the cheque of $2,100 In-kind Package to the winning team, the Technical and Operations Lead of TedPrime Hub Nigeria, Olalekan Adeeko charged the team to prepare to bring the trophy of excellence back home come April 2019 at the Entrepreneurship Summit in US.

In the same vein, Team Maternal Care from Jakande Senior High School, Lagos and Team Make Nature Friendly also from Abeokuta Grammar School also emerged National second and third respectively.

Diamond Challenge is a global competition created in 2012 to advance innovative entrepreneurial ideas that could change the world from high school students across the globe. Its maiden edition in Nigeria was hosted in Nigeria by TedPrime Hub in Partnership with Youth Development Centre of the President Olusegun Obasanjo Library.

IFEOMA OKEKE

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.