Take home from the Nigeria Innovation Summit that took place in Lagos.
Despite the accident I experienced on my way to the Nigeria Innovation Summit that took place on 7th of September at Ikeja Sheraton Hotel in Lagos, I was able to catch up the end of the programme including the award session.
These are my important take-home from the event:
I witnessed the awards for 6 Start-ups, all of whom are example of how ICT Innovations and Entrepreneurship is taking shape in Nigeria. The one that particularly took my fancy is that of Quadcycle automobile start-up. The start-up builds tricycle automobile powered by solar energy. I was particularly interested in this because it is something highly needed in Nigeria for local transportation. Besides, the importation of tricycles from Asia countries can be reduced by our own home-made and indigenous alternatives, which I believe will work out cheaper with mass production. The fact that it is being powered by solar energy will mean less dependent on petrol and lower environmental pollution and all attendant problems. Though they mentioned a plan for a hybrid type to use both solar and petrol, it will still work out the same. Most importantly, it will become more affordable to ordinary people to boost employment, service provisions and the economy.
Other Start-up awarded are:
Tizeti: An ISP for broadband internet provisions, surely a good way to go in the provision of more options in this market. The current provisions from the well known service providers are quite expensive and sometimes unreliable to say the least; you just have to put up with it in the absence of alternatives. With more options for customers, the service providers will have to up their games in providing excellent service in order to retain their customers as well as drive down prices to remain competitive.
Paystack: This is an online Payment solution that allows online sellers to receive payment online by integration with their E-commerce system. It allows Card payment, Bank payment and USSD payment type. This start-up is surely a very much needed one and I believe they will grow to become household names within local SMES and Entrepreneurs, if they are not one already.
BAU: This is an Education Technology Research and Development company with both online and Offline University in Cross river state with reach beyond the state and Nigeria. This is also an off-shoot of EduTech from the same founder, highly interesting Company in the online Education provisions in Nigeria, one to watch and learn from.
DotLearn: This is a start-up that compresses online education videos to make E-learning accessible to users with limited internet access. At the cost of SMS and as light as Whatsapp, users can download and watch learning videos. This solution solves the problem of cost and speed which is the major problem we have in Nigeria accessing online learning. This is surely a step towards bridging the digital divide created between the haves and have-nots who cannot afford the exorbitant cost of internet connectivity.
Shorlax: This is an App that is created to help African Students home and abroad have access to scholarship opportunities because of the high cost of University education. It is surely needed and hopefully it will be widely publicised and available at no cost to everyone. I remember those days I was searching heavens and earth for a suitable scholarship that I needed to complete a very important course I was holding on offer for 2 solid years but could not go due to lack of funds to take up my place. I did found a lot of scholarships; they just did not apply to me a that point in time. This kind of Scholarship search app will surely reduce such cases providing much needed opportunities to those who may otherwise not have it.
There was a long list of speakers but I wasn’t there to hear them speak but surely learnt a lot from the Start-ups during the award and upon further research on them. Innovations and Entrepreneurship is surely the future of our Nation and the earlier people get on board the better. Of course we are not all going to be one but we all have a role to play so we are not left behind, its either one is leading or one is supporting.
The most re-assuring part of this is that most of the Start-ups are Education focused which brings to mind the need for Nigeria to up it games in the Education provisions in line with the 21st Century Education Technology so we don’t get left behind in this highly important sector of development. Webhostville is aligned to play its own role in the E-learning space while contributing to the efforts of Institutions to bring their Education offerings online with the 21st Century Education Technology in addition to working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals for Education.