NUST student wins Digilympics championship

Computer Science student at Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Petrus Nauyoma, became the first Windhoek Digilympics champion.

The Entrepreneurship Hub Dololo DoBox is the first-ever Windhoek Digilympics. It is a contest in which 20 digital competitors paraded their digital skills. Of the 19 contestants, three were females and 16 males with ages ranging from 12 to 41.

Nauyoma, who also works as an IT intern at the SADC Parliamentary Forum, impressed both audience and organizers particularly in the first category of speed-typing.

He was able to reach a record-breaking 87 Words per Minute with a 98% accuracy in the 3-minute typing contest. This strong performance kept him leading through both the practice test and the multiple choice test, where he came second.

“When I first heard about the Digilympics I was immediately intrigued by the idea and wanted to be part of it. I never thought I would come first. I am so happy. I will definitely make it my mission to educate people around me on the importance of digital skills and encourage them to improve theirs as well. I would like to add a note of thanks to Nedbank who covers my tuition fees as well as Mondesa Youth Opportunities for teaching me computer skills. This is a very special day for me,” Nauyoma said.

In second place came Yakubu Shehu, a 25-year-old Computer Science Masters student at NUST, who won a Lenovo Tab M8 sponsored by Paratus. The third prize – a drone as well as wireless keyboard sponsored by Nictus Furnishers was awarded to 18-year-old Sakaria Nghinafve, also a NUST student.

Honorary mentions were given to 12-year-old Nathan Masakadza for being the youngest digital competitor and for his outstanding courage to sign up. He is already doing game development with C++.

“This event is a fantastic step in the right direction: raise awareness, bring people together, encourage them to work in the digital space. I was stunned by their knowledge and drive. We now have to follow suit to bring the right incentives in place to carry out the 4th Industrial Revolution successfully,” said Daisry Mathias, Presidential Advisor: Youth Matters & Enterprise Development.

The competition consisted of three rounds: First, a speed typing test followed by a practical test and lastly, multiple choice questions.

“With PayToday, we have been struggling to find some young talent especially in the field of Software Development. So I was so happy to see such a driven, ambitious bunch of contestants and was highly impressed by their performance. The future of Namibia will certainly be Tech-driven, so I am looking forward to more digitally savvy individuals coming out of schools and universities; and for companies to support their employees to grow their tech skills,” said Naudé Muller,

Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Fintech company, PayToday at the event.

The vision of the Digilympics is to highlight the importance of Digital competence as Digitization has the power to play a significant role in increasing people’s standard of living.

“We strongly believe that digitization serves to empower people and we want to encourage Namibians to make use of that potential. These first-movers hopefully serve as an inspiration for others to get connected, improve their digital skills and use them for their personal, educational and professional growth. At the same time, we also want to put pressure on policymakers: Alongside the requisite hard infrastructure investment, there is a need to put in place soft infrastructure: better legislative and institutional frameworks to sustain growth in the digital economy,” organizer Meike Neitz, Digital Ambassador with the GIZ, said.