CAMEROON. Bamenda. 18 year old, Mbah Javis, has developed an app for learning (The Network) where students can have access to free educational materials, and can learn, share ideas, and connect with entrepreneurs around the world. Users can as well link their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to the platform so that other users can also connect with them, The Network is fast, easy, open for sharing ideas and learning.
The upper sixth student says the ongoing crisis sparked the idea. “I saw so many youths who were not going to school, so I decided to build a place where students could learn and share ideas.”
Javis, like many others students from the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, has also suffered from the crisis. ” I wanted to provide free education to all those who have not been going to school in digital format.”
The young inventor says he started teaching himself computer programming in 2018, and his interest was to see Africa go digital.
The Network app provides educational questions for sharing in and out of the platform, provides a place where students connect, and keeps its users updated with current news.
Apart from the Learning aspects, Javis says his app also have sites for fun. “Learning without fun is boring so we have an entertainment tag for its users to share fun stuff with each other”
The Network is Javis’s first application on play store and more will be coming up as time passes. However, lack of resources, working machines, and payment for hosting sites has been Javis’s major challenges. “So far the only support I have gotten is encouraging words from family members and friends.
People pay me to make websites for them, and I make some for free depending on how much time it will cost me to build it.”
While Mbah Javis is pleading to the government to help realize his dreams and talents, he equally begs Cameroonian youth to be creative and don’t depend on the government alone.
“We should stay away from illegal and fraudulent activities like scamming because such things paint a bad image of our country and Africa to the world.”