Nigerian Girl Invents Electric Football

Nigerian Girl Invents
Electric Football
President Goodluck
Jonathan on Friday
expressed delight over the
creativity of a 25-year-old
Nigerian, Jessica Matthews,
who invented a power-
generatin g football called
SOCCKET ball.
Matthews, who is a co-
founder and Chief
Executive Officer of
Unchartedplay, was at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja to
present the ball, which can
generate three hours of
light from 30 minutes of
play to Jonathan.
She also presented an
energy-generati ng
skipping rope to the
President.
While congratulating her
on her creativity and
innovativeness, Jonathan
said he was impressed that
Matthews, who trained as a
psychologist and
economist, developed
herself in the field of
science.
He described her feat as a
proof of the quality of
human resource present in
Nigeria.
The President said the
invention was useful as a
major tool that could be
used to mobilise young
Nigerians and encourage
them to think more deeply.
Matthews said, "Sometimes
power is lost and you say
what can you do to solve
this situation and I saw my
cousins and everyone
playing football, playing
with everything not even
with football alone.
"I say this is amazing and
they can rival Messi. If we
can take this kinetic that is
generated here and use it
to address the issues that
we really have; kinetic
energy is used for
windmill, why not the
ball?"
She said although the
items were already on sale
in New York, she had not
started making them in
Nigeria.
She, however, said when
they would be made
available for sale in Nigeria,
the cost would be
equivalent to what people
pay for a solar inverter.
Minister of Trade and
Investment, Olusegun
Aganga, said the Federal
Government was looking
at the possibilities of
manufacturing the items in
Nigeria and see how to
make them cheaper for
Nigerians.
He said, "Jessica is a
Nigerian, she studied at
Harvard University, she
went to Business School
and actually taught herself
Electrical and Mechanical
Engineering. So, she is an
inspiration to every
Nigerian especially our
children in Nigerian
universities. This is a
product not only for
Nigeria, but a product
made in Nigeria by a
Nigerian and for the world.
"The second thing is that
the product is actually
versatile, it is not just
about the electricity you
see, you can use it to
charge your mobile
phones, for fans, so there
are so many things for
which it can be used.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN