Yinka Ogunnubi, father of a Nigerian child, Tomisin, who is widely reported to have won $I billion from RISE Initiative with her app opened up for the first time on the award on Tuesday.
The father in a series of tweets said the message about his daughter winning $ 1 billion has a lot of inaccuracies.
While declaring that his daughter never won a billion dollars, he said she is also 20 years and not 16 as widely circulated.
According to him, he needed to address the issue due to the complete inaccuracy of the reports.
His tweets: “I feel the need to address a broadcast message that has been floating around WhatsApp about my daughter Tomisin Ogunnubi. The story has a lot of inaccuracies that need to be corrected. The story conflates many facts and presents a picture that is completely inaccurate. The story in summary claims that Tomisin Ogunnubi, a 16-year-old Nigerian tech kid beat 49,000 competitors to win $1 billion from the RISE initiative with her app.
“1. Tomisin is not 16. She would be 20 in July. She won the RISE award in Oct 2021 at the age of 18.
“Tomisin did create a tracking app as part of a school project when she was 12 which got her national & international acclaim. But it was not because of the app that she with 100 other teenagers globally won the RISE Award.
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“The process for the award was a year-long process that involved several stages. The kids were assessed on their ability to work in groups, and project ideas. They were trimmed from 50k to 1k to 500 and then 100. The app was not Tomisin’s project in RISE.
“Tomisin did not win $1 Billion. The $1 Billion is a pledge by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy to “identify, develop and support 100 global talent working in service of others yearly”. Tomisin was among the first set of 100 teenagers.
“Tomisin is not the only winner from Nigeria. In all, there were 6 Nigerian Teenagers who won the award.
“These brilliant kids later organised a workshop to help other Nigerian kids on how to apply for and win subsequent RISE awards. It was their own way of giving back.
“When the award was given, Tomisin’s mum @wendypendy2000 tweeted about it in Nov 2021. Several local and international media outfits picked up on the story as well. So it is clearly not recent. Tomisin along with Eric Schmidt did a joint interview on BBC.
“The RISE Global Winner benefits include – Residential Summit- Higher Education Scholarship – Funding for ideas on a competitive basis- Network Matching- Starter Tech Packages – Mentoring. It doesn’t include $1 Billion. Please check the link.
“In summary, Tomisin along with 100 teenagers (6 of which were Nigerians) did win the very first RISE Global award in Oct 2021. She (or the 100) did not win $1 Billion. It wasn’t her app that won it either. It was hard work competing with 50,000 other teenagers globally.
“Every now and then, we see this story recycled & showing up on blogs. Each time, the story is embellished and it becomes more sensational. You’ll think we’d be contacted to confirm the facts before the stories are published. As a family, we stand for truth & not embellished stories.
“If you have received one of these blog or WhatsApp stories, please be guided. If you know anyone who has received the story, please share this thread with them.”
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