Insecurity made me design app for rapid response on phone –Halimat, 21

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

The security challenges ravaging Nigeria, leaving several people without help have prompted 21-year-old Halimat Onize Abdulazeez to design an app on a phone to connect people with rapid response and mitigate dangers.

Halimat, a graduate of Civil Engineering from the Nile University, Abuja, who named the app Limbuzz, said in an interview that the app was designed to ensure real help comes immediately for Nigerians who find themselves in danger.

What motivated you to study Civil Engineering at the university?

I’ve always been drawn to solving real, tangible problems, the kind you can actually see and touch. Civil Engineering felt like the perfect fit for that. I was fascinated by infrastructure, by how the right systems and structures can completely change how people live, move, and function in a city. I didn’t fully realise it then, but studying engineering shaped the way I think about problems even today, breaking things down, understanding systems, and building solutions that actually hold up under pressure.

So how did you find yourself in tech?

Honestly, it wasn’t a straight line. I trained as a civil engineer, someone who thinks in terms of structures, systems, and infrastructure. But the more I looked around Nigeria, the more I realised that one of our biggest missing pieces wasn’t a physical structure, it was an invisible one. We don’t have a functioning emergency response infrastructure. No real coordination system connecting people in danger to people who can help.

That felt like an engineering problem to me, just not the kind you build with concrete and steel. It’s the kind you build with code, with networks, with coordination. So I moved from designing physical infrastructure to designing safety infrastructure. Tech just became the material I needed to build it with.

What is the name of the app you created?

It’s called Limbuzz.

What inspired you to create the app?

I kept noticing the same pattern everywhere: when something goes wrong in Nigeria – robbery, an accident, a medical emergency – people don’t call for official help first. They call a family member. Not because they trust family more, but because they’ve quietly stopped expecting real help to come in time.

That broke something in me. It meant millions of people have accepted that they’re on their own in their most dangerous moments. I wanted to build something that changes that, not by waiting for the system to fix itself, but by connecting the resources that already exist – private security, ambulances, government response units – into one system that actually works when someone needs it most.

How does the app work?

It’s built around something we call a dual-response model. When someone is in danger, they press one button on the app. Two things happen immediately. First, the alert goes to a private response partner: a security team, or an ambulance service, who is contracted to get to them quickly. At the same time, the nearest government emergency unit, police, fire service, or medical, is notified with the exact location.

So the person gets speed from the private side and official backup from the government side, both at once. It also works offline through SMS in case there’s no internet connection, because in a real emergency, that’s often the first thing that fails.

What are the advantages of your app over other security features on the phone?

Most existing safety features on phones do one simple thing: they notify your emergency contacts or share your location. That’s helpful, but it’s not the same as actually getting help. If your contact is asleep, in a meeting, or far away, that notification doesn’t save you.

Limbuzz is different because we don’t just notify people, we dispatch real, trained responders. At the same time, we loop in government emergency services so there’s official awareness and backup. It’s the difference between sending a message into the void and actually getting someone moving toward you. We’re not a notification tool. We’re a response system.

Do you see yourself now building a career in tech?

Yes, genuinely. What surprised me most about this journey is realising that engineering and tech aren’t as far apart as I once thought; they’re both about building systems that solve real problems for real people. I went from designing physical structures to designing digital infrastructure, but the mindset hasn’t changed at all.

I see myself staying in this space, building solutions that matter, especially for Nigeria and Africa. Tech gives me the ability to build at a scale and speed that physical infrastructure alone never could. So yes, this isn’t a detour for me anymore; it feels like exactly where I’m supposed to be.