Top ten Nigerian Entrepreneurs have emerged winners of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority’s (NSIA) Prize for Innovation series three with investment stake of $285,000 (about N456 million) to be invested strategically in key three sectors – education, agriculture and health.
The NPI series three program attracted over 5,000 entries. It adopts a four – stage competition round, at the end of which ten finalists emerged over the weekend in Abuja to pitch for a chance to various prizes.
“The top ten finalists will participate in an all expenses paid, five weeks in- person training program at Draper University, Silicon Valley, United States with an opportunity to pitch to angel investors to secure additional funding and obtain global exposure.
Counselling the winners, Minister of finance and coordinating Minister for the economy Mr Wale Edun urged Nigerian youths to be innovative with ideas. He said the government is ever willing to give required supports.
“The President and his whole team recognize that 65%, those who are older than 30 are 65% of the population. Those older than 19 are 50% of the population.
“And we know that by 2050, Africa will rise to the top. We are here to encourage humanity to come forward. We have the skills, we have the power and essentially the work force of the world. Is important to know how to contribute and of course we need to have it together.
“Where does the opportunity come from in the future? Ideas that move things forward. Is what has started now . You need all the help in Nigeria”, he said.
The Minister delighted about the three focused areas of investments – health, education and agriculture, describing the areas as the country’s key essentials.
“I think it’s very important that the focus of healthcare, the focus of education, and indeed in agriculture, particularly agriculture.
“We need your ideas, we need your products, new methodologies, because we have to increase agriculture production.
“Productivity is relatively one, and we need to move ahead, we are really behind other countries”.
Speaking in an interview with the journalists, NSIA Managing Director/ CEO Mr. Aminu Umar-Sadiq described the investment as equity based. He said the series 3 Prize for Innovation was supported by key partners – Cascador and Presidential Initiative for Unlock on the Health and Value Chain ( PIVAC).
“It’s largely an equity prize. So we are putting together this platform in order to find the three best ideas for NSIA to invest in. There is a modest component of what would be a grant, but the significant majority would be equity into the top three.
“And this is going to be a prize that the NSIA is going to run in a sustainable manner moving forward. So we’ll see different versions moving forward, hopefully over the next decade and for longer. Interns of equity and cash prize, the NSIA is putting $225,000, Cascador is putting $45,000 while Presidential Initiative for Unlock on the Health and Value Chain ( PIVAC) is putting $15,000.
“The second leg is that, as a direct result of the success of this program by NSIA , USA and Japan are now co-launching an impact innovation fund so that we have a pool of long-term local currency capital to actually further offer growth capital to a lot of these great ideas that we are seeing.
“And we are very, very proud of the strategic partners that we have also mobilized towards this effort”, NSIA MD said.
He said the US embassy and Japanese Embassy in Nigeria have shown great commitment in the NSIA Prize for Innovation program.
“The U.S. Embassy from day one, they have been particular about how we can enhance the vision of the top 10 entrepreneurs, linking us up with similar entrepreneurs in the U.S., linking us up with labor in the U.S., getting us huge discounts, facilitating that transition.
“The Japanese Embassy is putting up $14 million in grants. And we can start with a pot of $28 million, in Naira equivalent, in order to disburse funds to hungry, ambitious, and visionary Nigerian entrepreneurs”, he said.
Economic Counselor, United States Embassy in Abuja Mr. Joseph Giblin was delighted with the presentation by Nigerian Entrepreneur.
“I’m very impressed with some of the presentations we’ve seen by the young people in Nigeria. It is very heartening to see them present their ideas, their innovative ideas, to try to solve some of the problems worldwide, but especially in agriculture and health care and things like that.
“So we’re very pleased and supportive of innovation here in Nigeria. Well, we’re very supportive.
“How could you be against innovation? Innovation is what drives progress. Progress makes the world go forward. This is a very good thing. It’s good in Nigeria. It’s good worldwide. So thank you for all the stuff you’ve been doing here.”
