Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
18
Project title
Click Smart
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Click Smart teaches Nigerian secondary school and university students to spot scams, protect their accounts and stay safe online, through free short workshops led by student volunteers and built on real local examples.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
www.linkedin.com/in/agada-joseph-ojochenemi
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
When I was in secondary school, I was scammed more than once. One of them was a fake online trading platform that asked me to pay money to get started, and only after I paid did I realise it was fraud. I was not the only one. Several of my friends fell for similar traps too, and none of us had any idea they were scams until it was too late. Nobody had ever taught us what the warning signs look like. The moment it clicked came later, when I started studying Computer Science and working in cybersecurity. I finally understood how these scams usually work: the pressure to pay fast, the fake websites that look real, the promises that sound too good to be true. I realised that what cost me and my friends so much could have been avoided with one hour of the right knowledge. Now I can explain these tricks in simple words, and I want every Nigerian student to learn in a classroom what I learned the hard way.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Online scams are all around Nigerian students, and most of us are never taught how to spot them. Fake trading platforms, fake job and loan offers, romance scams and hacked accounts all work the same way: they rush you, promise easy money, and count on you not knowing the warning signs. These scams are organised and active. Nigeria ranked fifth on the first World Cybercrime Index in 2024, and in one raid in December 2024 the EFCC arrested 792 people linked to crypto investment and romance scams. Global Voices Students are easy targets because we are online all day, we look for ways to earn money, and no one has explained the tricks. Many victims stay quiet, so the same scam keeps working on the next person. A single lost payment can wipe out savings a student worked hard for, and it leaves shame and lost trust in genuine online opportunities. This matters to me because it happened to me and my friends, and now that I work in cybersecurity I can see how preventable it was. Our communities need students who can protect themselves and teach others, before the loss happens, not after.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Click Smart is a free workshop programme that teaches students how online scams work, using real scams that Nigerian students have faced. Trained student volunteers run the sessions in secondary schools and on campuses, so students learn from people like them. Each session lasts about an hour. We show real local examples with names removed: a fake trading platform that asks for a small payment to start, a fake job or scholarship offer, a loan app that asks for too many permissions, and a phishing link that steals a login. For each one we point out the warning signs: pressure to act fast, promises of quick money, payment requested before any result, and links that copy a real site. Students then act out short role plays, practising how to say no and check before paying. Everyone leaves with a one page checklist and clear steps if they are scammed: stop paying, save the messages, tell someone they trust, and report to their bank and the EFCC. I will begin at the University of Abuja and nearby secondary schools. Volunteers can study any course. They complete a short training with me and use a plain language facilitator guide I will write, and two volunteers lead each session. A short quiz before and after each workshop shows what students learned, and we use the results to improve the lessons. Once the guide is tested, other campuses and schools can use it too.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Click Smart is still an idea, so I have no results to report yet. Here is the impact I plan to make and why I think it will work. In the first three months I plan to run a pilot: train about 10 student volunteers and hold around 5 workshops at the University of Abuja and a secondary school in Abuja, reaching about 200 students. A short quiz before and after each session will show how many students can spot a scam and know what to do if they are scammed. Four weeks later, a quick follow up will ask if they used the checklist, warned a friend, or stopped a payment. Success looks like fewer students paying into fake platforms, more students checking before they send money, and scam victims reporting instead of staying silent. Each student reached can also protect friends and family. I think it will work because the lessons come from real experience. I lost money to a scam and so did my friends, so I know which tricks work on students. Students also listen to other students. The sessions are free, short and use local examples, and role plays make the lessons stick better than a lecture. Because the guide is written down, the programme can grow to other schools without me running every session.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Most scam awareness in Nigeria comes as bank alerts, social media posts and occasional talks by officials. These help, but they are often one way, generic and easy to scroll past. Click Smart is different in four ways. First, students teach students. Our volunteers are people the audience can relate to, and I can speak from experience because I was scammed as a student. That builds trust faster than a warning from a stranger. Second, we use real local cases, such as the fake trading platforms and fake job offers that students in Nigeria actually meet, rather than general tips. Students recognise the scam when they see it again. Third, students practise instead of just listening. In role plays they take the scammer's side, then practise saying no. Seeing how a scammer builds pressure teaches the warning signs better than a list. Fourth, the lessons are shaped by real cybersecurity practice. I work in cybersecurity, so I turn what professionals do, like checking a link before clicking, using two step verification, and confirming a company is registered before paying, into simple habits for students. The programme is also easy to copy. Everything goes into a written facilitator guide, so any trained volunteer can run a session with a classroom and no special equipment, and we measure results with a before and after quiz. That makes Click Smart a low cost model that can grow campus by campus.
How many people are on your team?
1
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
I am the founder. I will write the facilitator guide and train volunteers. I am building a team of 5 to 10 students: 3 or 4 facilitators who lead sessions in pairs, a school liaison who arranges visits and permission, a designer for the checklist and slides, and a volunteer who records quiz results. We share leadership by rotating who leads each session and meeting weekly to review what worked and plan next steps.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next three months I will move Click Smart from idea to a tested pilot. In month one, I will write the facilitator guide, the one page scam checklist and the before and after quiz, using real local cases with names removed. I will recruit 5 to 10 volunteers from the University of Abuja Model United Nations, the Africa Young Diplomats Association and other campus groups, and ask a lecturer to support us. Through a contact doing her industrial training at a secondary school in Abuja, I will ask the principal for permission to hold a workshop. In month two, I will train the volunteers, then run the first workshops at the University of Abuja and the secondary school, with two volunteers leading each session. I will collect quiz results and ask students what was clear and what was confusing. In month three, I will improve the guide using that feedback, send the four week follow up to see whether students used what they learned, and write a short results report. I will use it to invite more schools, campuses and volunteers, so Click Smart can grow across Abuja in the following year.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
I have only just started shaping Click Smart, so I have not yet engaged many people. Here is how I will do it. To bring in volunteers, I will invite students from the University of Abuja Model United Nations, the Africa Young Diplomats Association and other campus groups, and I will share the call in class and hostel WhatsApp groups. Volunteers get real training, experience speaking in public and a certificate for their work, which helps their CVs. To spread the message beyond the workshops, I will post a short "scam of the week" on WhatsApp status, Instagram and X, using real local cases with names removed. Each post ends with one simple thing to do, like checking a link before you pay. After every workshop I will ask each student to share the checklist with three people and invite them to join as volunteers. I will also invite students to send in their own scam stories anonymously, so our examples always stay real and current. Finally, I will ask lecturers, student leaders and school teachers to support us, because people trust messages that come from their own community.
