Each night, 700 million people worldwide go to bed hungry – but when Nigerian software engineer Oscar Ekponimo gets home from his day job, he at once goes to work to feed them, driven by memories of childhood hunger. His solution is Chowberry, a cloud-based software application that cuts food waste and redistributes vital nutrition to people in need. It uses the barcodes on food products to alert retailers when the end of shelf-life is approaching and help redistribute these discounted products to food relief agencies. Ekponimo’s Rolex Award is assisting to perfect the program and build the social enterprise around it, with the initial goal of delivering safe, healthy nutrition to 50,000–100,000 low-income Nigerian households.
Estimated number of Nigerians who suffer daily hunger.
Percentage of Nigerians who survive on less than US$1.25 per day.