A Nigerian startup founder, Abdulhakim Bashir, on Wednesday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, emerged winner in the Artificial Intelligence category final of the Startup Innovation competition.
The Startup Innovation competition was organized by the Dubai’s World Trade Centre to bring out innovative spirits in young startup owners.
Bashir’s innovation, Chiniki Guard, is a security application developed to prevent shoplifting in stores and theft in residential houses.
“Chiniki Guard provides real-time updates on the activities going on in a retail store. It reports theft and shoplifting by analyzing the video feed through the Closed Circuit TV’’, Bashir said in an interview with journalists in Dubai.
Bashir said the app would prevent over 80 % of shops and stores from bankruptcy caused by dishonest employees or shoplifters.
‘’We envisioned how Artificial Intelligence might combat this rampant act to save retailer’s loss. Chiniki Guard consists of a control centre inference app to stream videos, a mobile app and a dashboard’’, he said.
For taking the first position in the AI category, the young Nigerian got a cash prize of $10,000.
The coordinator of Nigerian startups at the IT competition, Dr Amina Sambo, said Bashir’s victory had further confirmed that Nigerian youths have great talents in Information Technology.
Dr Sambo, who is the National Coordinator of Office for ICT Innovation in Nigeria, also said her office would increase for more startups.