I find fulfilment in developing mobile phone apps – Njolima

After the recent crime wave, Concepta Njolima, a 21-year-old student of Makerere University, decided to develop a mobile phone application to help citizens fight crime.
Njolima has created three apps, with one in its final stages of development and the other two soon to hit the market after completing a legal process.

Beginning
Elegant, creative and determined to conquer the scientific world, Njolima narrates how it all started.
“I was chaotic with devices though I was not the type that destroys and goes away. I had to make sure all the devices I dissemble due to my ambition to know how they work are put together after by all means,” the Software Engineering student narrates of how she dismantled her father’s radio.

Her breakthrough in programming came in high school. Participating in the science club, especially robotics competitions, saw Njolima win a number of awards, starting with the Technovation Challenge in both 2014 and 2016 where she walked away with $500 as runner up and $1,000 dollars and equipment for her school, Maryhill High School, Mbarara.
While in high school, she developed two applications. One was about national IDs and the other about land. She developed the land app after realising that go-betweens or land brokers exploit sellers and buyers as well.

The apps
The national ID app was designed in such a way that there is no need for one to physically carry the ID. The idea came up after a number of people registered for national IDs but did not receive them. Njolima felt that if she could access the data base then the app could replicate a national ID.
Njolima also development an app to bridge the gap between buyers and sellers of land. The land app was also designed to make the process of acquiring land tittles online possible.
However, the two apps have not been legalised yet and hence are not on the market.

The Anti-Violence Mobile Phone application (AVC-Mobi)
Following the recent crime wave, Njolima says together with her partner and sister Clare Kahuma they came up with the idea of developing an app to fight crime.
The AVC-Mobi enables one report crime by sending a message, taking a photo of the crime scene or making an emergency call to the police.
Njolima says the application has a special code where only those listed as police representatives can be able to retrieve the data.
“This will ease communication between police and the citizens for the better monitoring of security, especially in areas where police stations are far and cannot easily be alerted about crimes,” she says. The app is in its final stages of development.

Hobbies
Despite her love for developing software applications, Njolima loves repairing cars.
In her Senior Four vacation, Njolima set out to improve her skills in car repairs.
“Sometimes we would be travelling and my parent’s [Dr Adolf Kahuma and Ms Scholastica Kabanyaka Kahuma] car breaks down and then we had to wait for a mechanic. Funny how sometimes these cars will break down when you are in an area where a mechanic is miles away. This trigged my desire to learn motor repair and car maintenance while in S4 vacation,” she says.
“Following my background of wanting to be an aircraft engineer, I found no hard time in learning motor repairs because I was being driven by passion.”

Businesswoman
Njolima says she has ventured into cosmetics and jewellery and runs a shop in Fort Portal Town. She is also into goat rearing, apiary and fish-farming.
In the near future, Njolima says she would want to merge her entrepreneurship and programming skills so as to expand. Being interested in learning, she would also want to do research in other fields, including health.

Challenges
“Due to the school schedule, it is sometimes hectic to fully balance our projects with academics. This has caused a few management setbacks in our (Njolima and Kahuma’s) businesses. However, every first weekend of the month is set aside to return home to check on the projects that we have left our parents to help us monitor,” she says.

Njolima also says with information technology being sensitive, there is always delay because of the procedures required to legalise an app. She cites the example of permission required from different stakeholders like police in the case of her AVC-Mobi app.
She gets her inspiration from American boxer May Weather. She says passion is the best motivator.