News

Nigerian Student, Others Develop Medical App For Diagnosis

Published

2 years ago

April 20, 2023

Nigerian students in different parts of the world keep making impressive strides in different disciplines.

Couple of weeks ago, Tony Okeke, 20, who was the winner of the 2018 edition of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, National Science Quiz and presently studying Biomedical Engineering in Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, collaborated with five other international students (four Nigerians and one Indian) to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Medical Assistance App, which they named ‘Meddibia’.

Okeke’s team, named, ‘Team Meddibia’, comprises Okeke, Dishika Goel, Elochukwu Enwerem, Dalu Okonkwo, Michael Moemeke and Victor Uzo.

The team’s project, ‘Meddibia’, was one of the ten AI projects that won at the Philly Codefest 2023, a contest that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA during the 10th year of the software and hardware hackathon hosted by College of Computing & Informatics, Drexel University, Philadelphia.

Explaining how difficult it was for the panel of judges ot determine the winners, Dave Raiken, Assistant Director of Operations, said the 46 teams that took part, presented great technical projects that aligned with the theme: AI Everywhere— that is, “real-world, scalable software and hardware solutions to improve and expand artificial intelligence’s positive societal impacts.”

Presenting their project on behalf of his team, Okeke explained: “The inspiration behind our latest project came from a deep desire to improve the accessibility of medical care for people living in rural areas.

“As developers from third-world countries, we understood all too well the struggles faced by those who lack access to proper medical facilities.

“Our team wanted to create a solution that would bridge the gap between these individuals and medical professionals, so we set out to create an app that would allow users to receive medical advice and diagnoses using machine learning models.”

What it does

Meddibia is a personal AI health assistant that puts greater control over health in the hands of users living in rural communities. With it, users can describe their symptoms to a chat assistant and receive a likely diagnosis, along with more information about their diagnosis and symptoms.

Additionally, it enables users to get diagnosis for skin conditions and aberrations by simply taking a picture of the affected area. This feature is especially important for those with limited access to healthcare professionals or specialized facilities. By providing personalized care and making it easier to manage health conditions, Meddibia empowers users to take control of their health and improve their quality of life.

How it was built

To accurately identify skin conditions, the team experimented with various pre-trained models, including VGG16 and EfficientNet, to extract features from images from the dermnet dataset.

They then trained and evaluated deep neural network classifiers, ultimately selecting a model with approximately 70% accuracy. For symptom identification, they employed GPT-3, a state-of-the-art language model, to preprocess natural language input from users into symptom labels, which served as input to our machine-learning model.

This approach resulted in about 87% accuracy in predicting disease labels. To further assist users, and used GPT-3 to provide helpful descriptions of the predicted disease. The app’s backend was built using Flask API and deployed on Heroku, while the cross-platform frontend was developed using Flutter, making our app easily accessible to users across multiple devices.

News

NYSC Pays Arrears After Two-month Break

Published

7 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Editor

The National Youth Service Corps resumed payments for arrears on Wednesday, marking the first disbursement since the last payment on June 3, following a two-month break.

This payment relates to the new N77,000 monthly allowance recently approved by the Federal Government.

Recall that on April 5th, the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, assured that corps members who recently completed their service will receive the new N77,000 monthly allowance approved by the Federal Government.

Speaking during the Batch A 2025 Pre-Mobilisation Workshop in Abuja, Nafiu said, “Once funds are released to us to offset the arrears, we will pay them. Even our corps members who passed out recently will benefit. We have their bank details.”

He emphasised the government’s commitment, adding, “Nigerians should not fret about that because the government is both responsible and responsive to their needs.”

This development was confirmed by PUNCH, by a previously serving corps member who chose to remain anonymous, who said, “After waiting for two months, I didn’t expect to see another payment alert. But honestly, it’s not just about the money; it’s about feeling like our efforts actually count.

The payment of arrears, covering the period from July 2024 to March 2025, follows widespread frustration over delayed implementation after the Federal Government approved the allowance increase as part of its commitment to easing economic hardship for Nigerian youth.

News

FCTA Withdraws Park Licences, Directs Fresh Screening Of Operators

Published

7 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Editor

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has withdrawn all park licences in Abuja, directing operators to resubmit their documents for a fresh screening exercise, with a possibility of reallocation.

The Director, Department of Development Control, Murktar Galadima, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on Wednesday, while explaining the reasons for the demolition of Boulevard Park, Maitama, Abuja.

The FCTA carried out the demolition of Boulevard Park in Maitama on Tuesday, over violations of park policies and distortion of the Abuja Master Plan.

Assistant Director, Department of Development Control, and Sector Head for Maitama and Wuse, Sherif Razak, explained during the exercise that the park, originally designated for recreational purposes, had been overbuilt and misused.

He said the park had been converted to worship centres, revival grounds, and restaurants, operating under unhygienic conditions.

Galadima explained that the decision to withdraw park licenses followed a memo jointly submitted by the Directors of Parks and Recreation and Lands to the Minister of the FCT, highlighting several inadequacies and violations associated with parks management in the FCT.

He said the new directive offers park operators the opportunity to resubmit their documents to the Department of Parks and Recreation for review.

“If they meet the terms and conditions, they can be reallocated. Owners of parks should respond to the call, submit their documents, and if they meet the requirements, they will return to their parks,” he said.

The Director stressed that the decision was not taken to deliberately witch-hunt park operators, but is part of efforts to restore order and compliance with existing policies.

“There’s nothing like witch-hunting. All park allocations have been withdrawn following a series of violations, and the Minister is at liberty to do whatever he wants to do with land in the FCT, parks inclusive,” he stated.

On the recent demolition of Boulevard Park, Galadima clarified that operators were duly notified before enforcement, pointing out that the park had long violated its terms of allocation, operating in direct contravention of recreational policy.

“Boulevard Park was allocated for recreational purposes, but the activities taking place there are a total violation of the park policy in terms of operation. Boulevard has violated all the terms and conditions,” he said.

He noted that monitoring park operations was the primary responsibility of the Department of Parks and Recreation, adding that parks were expected to submit concept designs for approval before operations commenced. However, lapses in monitoring had led to widespread abuse.

“The FCT is a creation of law, and lawlessness will not be tolerated. The development of the city is guided by law, and every operator must comply with the terms and conditions of their allocation,” Galadima said.

He stated that a ministerial committee had been set up to review all allocations and uses of parks, to ensure they were serving their original recreational purpose.

News

Tinubu Names New VCs For Education Varsities In Zaria, Kano

Published

7 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Editor

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday named Prof. Yahaya Bunkure as the new Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State.

The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this in a statement he signed on Wednesday titled ‘President Tinubu appoints Nakore, Kodage into governing council of Federal University of Education Kano, Bunkure, names VC Federal University of Education Zaria.’

Bunkure is a renowned academic specialising in science education.

He is currently the Vice Chancellor of Saadatu Rimi University of Education in Kano.

Tinubu also appointed Abdurrazaq Nakore, an engineer, as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Yusuf Maitama Sule Federal University of Education, Kano.

He named Prof. Abdullahi Kodage as Vice Chancellor of the university.

Nakore, a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, was Executive Secretary of the Rural Electricity Board in Jigawa State.

The Federal University of Education, Zaria, and the Yusuf Maitama Sule Federal University of Education, Kano, were among the four Colleges of Education upgraded into full-fledged universities between 2022 and 2023.

“In accordance with the institution’s governing laws, the pro-chancellor will serve a term of four years, while the Vice-Chancellors will serve for five years,” the statement added.