These secondary school students taught themselves to code and, with encouragement from their parents and school, they’ve achieved something extraordinary.
Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime, 13 and 15 years old respectively, are students of Greensprings school, Anthony Campus, Lagos, and they developed an Android based web browser called Crocodile Browser Lite sometime last year.
Osine’s interest in computers began at the tender age of 7, the same age which he and his brother –who was 9 at the time (born June 1, 1999), decided to start a company of their own. Inspired by Microsoft’s “Windows” platform, they initially named their new company ‘Doors’, but later changed the name to ‘BluDoors’ when they found out that the initial name had been taken.
The two brothers decided to learn to code at ages 12 and 14 respectively. “I learnt to code by myself. I started in 2013, I used sites sites like Code Academy, Code Avengers and books like ‘Android for Game Development’ and ‘Games for Dummies’,” said Anesi.
According to both brothers, they started developing an Android based web browser, which they named Crocodile Browser Lite, about a year ago, out of boredom. Their strong interest in technology, coupled with their desire to learn, informed the decision to create a functional, fast browser for low end feature phones because “We were fed up with Google Chrome”, according to them.
The brothers launched their browser on the Mobango app before taking it onto the Google Play Store so they could reach a wider audience. Their browser currently has around 500 downloads, but no ads yet.
Their mother, Mrs. Ngozi Ikhianosime, a Math teacher, said, “Oseni could already use a PC before could read, at age 3.” She also said that the school the boys attended also played a key role in encouraging their love for coding. They had access to computers in school and they both had personal laptops at home.
Credit Pulse Nigeria
This is wonderful news! Congratulations to the young men and much success.