A secondary school student has invented a phone that doesn't need airtime, SIM

A Namibian secondary school student is getting all the social media buzz right now - and for the right reasons too.

The student, Simon Petrus, has created a mobile phone that works with radio frequencies without the need for a SIM card or any airtime.

Calls can be made to anyone, anywhere, without any interruptions - all they need is to be in an area with a radio frequency.

Over the course of two years and over $2000 in funding from his unemployed parents, Petrus built his device putting together scraps of old television and mobile phones.

Apart from his SIM-less phone, Petrus' invention is a whole unit made up of radio, television, a light bulb, a fan, and a socket.

According to media reports, the SIM-less phone is not Petrus's first invention but it is his latest. In 2015, he won first place at a competition for young innovators in Namibia for creating a machine that is both a seed drier and a cooler.

As it stands, it looks like Petrus is already on course to come out tops in the next phase of the competition after already coming first place at the regional level last Friday.

“When he won last year, some judges were of the opinion that there was an engineer at home who was helping him. But the only help he has is from us the teachers here at school. He came up with his own project,” Taimi Vatileni, Petrus’s science teacher said according to New Era.

Vatileni says Petrus is an average student "in general," but one who was way ahead of his peers in the sciences. Good thing he wants to an electronics engineer when he's done with school.

I hope Nigerian students, schools, and parents are paying attention.