Segun Daniel, winner of the Code4Africa Privacy Hackathon, has called for stronger digital re-orientation and education for youths to promote responsible use of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Mr Daniel, a final-year Computer Science student at Bingham University, Abuja, made the call on Thursday on the sidelines of the dinner award ceremony for the 17th Annual Conference of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association in Abuja.

The hackathon was part of the activities at the ISACA conference, held from August 26 to 28.

According to him, many young people engage with AI and other digital tools irresponsibly due to a lack of awareness and guidance.

“Youths ought to be really educated and be oriented on their priorities to be taken right. A lot of us youths do not know what we should be engaging in while growing up. We lack the ability to set our priorities in life right until we are probably around 25 or 30.

“I believe that we need to put them in situations whereby they get to get their priorities right, they’ll make the best use of every tool provided to them on ICTs,” he said.

Mr Daniel, who developed the Data Guardian application with his team, explained that the App helps monitor the permissions mobile applications access on devices, such as location and camera.

He said the app also includes an AI policy summariser that simplifies lengthy terms and conditions for easy understanding by users.

The young innovator said the win was a product of months of hard work, adding that it reinforced his belief that effort and value creation would always be rewarded.

“It was many nights without sleep, but winning shows our work was not in vain; it motivates me to keep providing value,” he said.

Mr Daniel also stressed the importance of awareness creation by the government and stakeholders to encourage citizens’ participation in innovation-driven initiatives.

He noted that, beyond the cash prizes, hackathons and competitions offer opportunities for learning, skill building, and developing solutions to national challenges.

“I love my country and Africa, but we are a little behind in the global digital race. Awareness creation is extremely important, and people may be drawn to ICT competitions if prizes were given,” he said.

The Code4Africa Privacy Hackathon was organised by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission in partnership with ISACA, Abuja chapter, and Scratch and Script Limited.

(NAN)