The energy inside the Zenith Tech Fair 2025 at Eko Hotel, Lagos, was impossible to ignore. Screens glowed, machines hummed, and conversations about the future filled every corner of the hall. But the atmosphere shifted the moment the young boy from Makoko, a slum along the Lagos lagoon, stepped forward to present his creation.
His name is Jerry Fortune, and within minutes on stage, he became one of the most memorable voices of the entire fair.
Guests at the tech fair described the environment as “crazy in a good way,” especially as young innovators revealed the projects they had built through Chess in Slums Africa.
Hope, excitement and a sense of possibility flowed through the room as the children’s representative demonstrated what they had learned and what they believed could still be achieved in Nigeria.
At the centre of that excitement was Jerry Fortune’s Smart Farm system, a simple, thoughtful, and highly practical innovation designed to help farmers monitor their crops with ease.
Introducing himself confidently, Jerry explained how the system uses sensors to track temperature and humidity, displaying the readings on an LCD screen for immediate understanding.
The heart of the project is its automated irrigation pump. Using a mobile app, a farmer can simply issue a voice command: “Turn on pump,” and irrigation begins. “Turn off pump,” and it stops. It removes guesswork entirely, giving farmers greater control over how much water their crops receive.
Jerry highlighted a crucial part of the design. Although WiFi is fast, it becomes unreliable in communities with weak networks.
Bluetooth, on the other hand, stays stable, a choice that ensures the Smart Farm can work even in rural or low-signal areas.
“That’s why we use Bluetooth,” he explained, making it clear that the system was built with everyday Nigerian realities in mind.
Visitors also explored other STEM creations from the children. V-printing tools, tech models and interactive displays, but Jerry’s ability to clearly explain a complex system set him apart.
His innovation was more than a demonstration — it was a solution shaped by observation, logic, and genuine creativity.
At the Zenith Tech Fair 2025, surrounded by some of the country’s most advanced technologies, one of the brightest lights came from a young boy in Makoko who believed in what he could build.
Jerry Fortune did not just present a project. He showed the world what becomes possible when raw brilliance is given the space to grow.
