Young Nigerians to Watch out for in the Coming Years
Quite a number of Nigerian children have blown our minds over the years and recently. Despite their ages, these young Nigerians are rising above the status quo and redefining the country from the inside out. In celebration of Children’s Day, RefinedNG shines the spotlight on 20 young Nigerians showcasing their talents and making the country proud whilst serving as an inspiration to other children.
Chika Ofili
In 2019, this astounding 13-year-old Nigerian-British student broke a historical record in UK when he discovered a new mathematical formula – Chika’s Test, to test for divisibility by 7. He later won the Academic Hero award at the TruLittle Hero Awards for discovering a new mathematics formula.
Basil Okpara
11-year-old Basil Okpara has created more than 30 mobile games using a free programming application – Scratch 2. After attending a five-day booth camp organized by Codefest International, Basil Okpara now build mobile games to keep himself engaged. Basil names his game based on what they are about. One of his games, “Mosquito Mash” is available on Google playstore. Basil hopes to be a scientist in the future.
Fathia Abdullahi
Fathia Abdullahi is the mastermind behind Robot T-shit, a robot created to fold laundry in three seconds. This robot prototype was invented by the 14-year-old Fathia to make daily tasks like folding of clothes much easier. Fathia wants to become a food scientist.
Oluwatobiloba Nsikakabasi Owolola
This 14-year old has made Nigeria proud with his amazing coding and robotics skills. In order to reduce the burden of house chores like Fathia, Oluwatobiloba also programmed a robot grabber that identifies nearby objects around the house and moves them. He named the robot Grabber, according to its function. The young inventor wants to become a robotic engineer.
Emmanuella Mayaki
This amazing 11-year old tech genius was hired as a coding instructor in the UK following her knowledge and experience with computers and coding.
Hope Emmanuel Frank
17-year-old Frank from Akwa Ibom recently astonished Nigerians with his engineering skill. Frank uses wood and condemned laptop batteries to build a moving excavator and a dump truck. His dream is to become one of the world’s great inventors.
Tomisin Ogunnubi
Tomisin Ogunnubi created a genius app to help find lost children. The 17-year old is the creator of My Locator, an app that helps to locate missing children. The app uses Google Maps to track users as they move from one place to another. Since creating the app in 2016, it has been downloaded over 1000 times on Google Playstore.
Tanitoluwa Adewunmi
10-year-old Tani has over the years received both national and international accolades for his brilliant chess skills. Tani became an internet sensation in 2019 when he won the New York State Chess Championship. Tani recently gained title of a National Chess Master after winning the CCFC G/30 Club Championship in Norwalk, Connecticut, earning a whopping 58 points and the title of National Master.
Amanda Amaeshi
Nigerian-Sottish Amanda was recently named Glasgow Times Young Scotswoman of the Year 2020. She is a member of the Girlguiding Advocate Panel, a panel of 18 young women in the UK, who speak on a broad range of issues confronting society such as gender bias, racism and injustice. She is an award-winning writer credited with winning the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) competition.
Oluwatamilore Kabiawu
Tami is the Fair Lawn High School senior who became a viral sensation after getting admission offers from 14 colleges including five Ivy League schools. He hopes to create innovations in Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality.
Victory Yinka-Banjo
Like Tami, Victory received both national and international accolades after receiving 19 full-ride scholarship offers from universities across the US and Canada. She rose to national prominence after scoring straight As in her WASSCE and has been rated as the Top in the World in English as a second language by the University of Cambridge International Examination (CIE).
Read Also: Vogue Spotlights Six Nigerian Women at the Forefront of West Africa’s Tech Boom
Faith Odunsi
Faith is a 15-year-old student credited with winning the Global Open Mathematics Tournament. She had previously set an excellent academic record in the 2019 Cowbellpedia competition after answering 19 questions in 60 seconds. Following this, she received a Record Holder Award for the highest number of questions answered on the academic show in the Junior School category.
Musa Mustapha
This 10-year-old Nigerian table tennis star was recently ranked the world’s best in the boys’ U-11 cadet table tennis category by the International Table Tennis Federation – ITF. He is the first Nigerian and second African to top the world rank.
Demilade (Sax) Adepegba
As a baby, the sound of music was just enough to pacify Demilade’s cries. At the amazing age of 4, he was already playing the flute and keyboard perfectly. Surprisingly, a year into learning the keyboard, he requested for a saxophone and at age 10, this young saxophonist has played at different occasions including the Child-Friendly Award, concerts, church programmes, school competitions, weddings and birthday celebrations.
Temilayo Abodunrin
Temilayo Abodunrin is a 12-year-old saxophonist best known for her “Duduke” and “Jowo” cover versions. She started playing at the age of six and has now graced many concerts, sharing the stage with popular Nigerian artists like Tope Alabi. She was invited to perform at season 11 of the Channels International Kids Cup in 2019 and was part of the Ogo Yoruba Awards (OYA) in January 2021.
Kareem Waris Olamilekan
14-year-old Kareem gained global recognition after drawing a hyperrealistic portrait of French President Emmanuel Macron in just two hours. He creates his work from a makeshift art studio in a neighborhood in Lagos where he primarily uses pencil to create portraits of friends, family and popular figures. Kareem is inspired by the works of Michelangelo and fellow portraitist Arinze Stanley Egbengwu.
Moyinoluwa Oluwaseun
10-year-old Moyinoluwa Oluwaseun is an award-winning photographer and founder of Ariyike Studios. Moyinoluwa first picked up a camera at the age of two and at five, her father, the creative director of Mo Photography gifted her a professional camera. Moyinoluwa became a professional photographer at age four. She is the recipient of the 2017 and 2018 Kidpreneur of the Year.
Read Also: 10-Year-Old Tanitoluwa Adewumi is Officially a National Chess Master!
Marylove Edwards
Marylove Edwards is one of the brightest tennis player from Nigeria. As of 2018, she was named the 4th best tennis player in the country by the Nigeria Tennis Federation. The 16-year old started playing at the young age of 4 under her father’s supervision. Marylove won her first tournament in the US, USTA Celsius Level 6 girls’ 14 and Under tournament in 2017. Since then, she has participated and won several competitions including the Mid-Western Oil and Gas Junior Open and Gauteng North Belgrave Sportsman’s Warehouse Tournament in South Africa.
Ugo Ugochukwu
13-year-old Ugo Ugochukwu is a Nigerian-American carting champion, who recently signed a long-term deal with McLaren, a British motor racing team. Ugo began racing karts in New York at age six. He has competed in the US, Europe and won the FIA OK Junior European Championship.
William Afolabi, Mordi Menashi, Famobiwo Olubusuyi and Ugbo Osagumwenro
These bright students are members of the Whitesands School’s Team Neon, the only African team to make to the final stage of the 2018 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge in Florida. At the international competition, they were required to develop an innovative and marketable idea that could help reduce smoking. Under the supervision of their coach, they developed an app – Virtual Farm. They further received a Good Citizen award and the Power Pitch award for the Smoke-Free World category of the competition.
Remarkable achievements! We are rooting them