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About six Nigerian entrepreneurs have won this year’s ‘Zero Hunger Sprint – Nigeria’s Innovation Challenge’ held in Lagos last Friday.
The competition aims to foster innovative approaches to end hunger, championed by Nigeria’s entrepreneurs.
The six young men and women received cheques totaling N120 million to support their start- ups. In addition to the cash awards, the start-ups will also receive mentorship from the investor companies and participate in a six-months’ Sprint Programme designed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The winning innovative entrepreneurs and the amounts they received are:
Jerry Oche: ZOWASEL (an online marketplace and crop testing service that connects smallholder farmers with premium buyers): N42 million;
Adepeju Jaiyeoba: COLOURFUL GIGGLES (a natural baby food company working to fight hidden hunger by making baby food affordable and readily available): N21 million;
Tosin Ayodele: AGRORITE (a company which helps smallholder farmers to access credit, data driven advisory services and premium markets): N21 million;
Ayoola Dominic: KOOLBOKS (a company producing eco-friendly and easily accessible refrigeration solutions, powered by solar energy and equipped with Pay-As-You-Go technology): N21 million;
Luther Lawoyin: PRICEPALLY (a digital food cooperative enabling families or small businesses to share bulk food items among a group or buy food in bulk directly from farmers or wholesalers, making it cheaper and fresher than retail): N10 million, and
Michael Ogundare: CROP2CASH (a company which creates reliable, verifiable credit scores and risk profiles for farmers to unlock much-needed finance to improve their productivity and income): N5 million.
The initiative and the backing it receives help to support and contribute to Nigeria’s own efforts at achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 – which aims to bring an end to hunger.
The funding for the first Zero Hunger Sprint in Nigeria was provided by five large corporations who are passionate in supporting innovative ideas in the food security and nutrition sector, under the Zero Hunger Roundtable: Promasidor; Guinness Nigeria; TGI Group; Nigerian Breweries and Tolaram Group.
The Zero Hunger Roundtable is a multi-sector forum aimed at collectively addressing food challenges as a part of the UN’s global mandate to achieve Zero Hunger by the year 2030.