By Taddeo Bwambale  | From New Vision

Three Ugandan youth who invented a malaria testing kit that digitally diagnoses malaria without the need for blood samples have won funding from President Yoweri Museveni.

Josiah Kavuma, Simon Lubambo, Joshua Businge and Brian Gitta developed the mobile phone app named Matibabu as computer science students at Makerere University two years ago.

Museveni, who was chief guest at the Mozilla Festival East Africa on Saturday promised to find $55,000 (sh180m) to fund the project to its completion.

The team known as team Code 8, were adjudged the winners of the inaugural Women’s Empowerment Award at Microsoft’s global student software competition, Imagine Cup.

Matibabu uses a custom-made portable device called a matiscope, which is connected to a smartphone, to do a rapid diagnostic test.

The user’s finger is inserted into the matiscope and the application uses a red light to penetrate the skin and detect the red blood cells.

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Matibabu then sends the results to the Microsoft file hosting service, Skydrive, and these can be shared with the patient’s doctor almost instantly, preventing the long delays.

Museveni could not hide his fascination with the app and several innovations showcased at the three-day Mozilla East Africa Festival 2015 held in Kampala.

When the developers of the app told him they needed $55,000 (sh180m) start-up capital to develop their business, the President promised to meet the cost.

“I can sell some of my cows and see how to meet that cost,” Museveni told group, eliciting applause from the gathering.

Read more at New Vision