CLAIM: Several blogs and online personalities claimed that Tomisin Ogunnubi, a 16-year-old Nigerian tech wiz, beat 49,000 competitors to win $1 billion from Rise Initiative with her app.
One of the reporting blogs, Face2Face Africa noted that Ogunnubi shocked the world when she beat 49,000 contestants from 170 countries to emerge as one of the winners of the $1 billion. Some Twitter and WhatsApp users have also shared the claim.
VERDICT: FALSE
In a series of tweets, Yinka Ogunnubi, Tomisin’s father, debunked the claims, saying the circulating story presents a completely inaccurate picture.
Ogunnubi added that Tomisin did create a tracking app as part of a school project when she was 12 which got her national and international acclaim, but it was not because of the app that she alongside 100 other teenagers globally won the Rise award.
“Tomisin did not win $1 Billion,” he concluded.
