CEM REPORT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP | Priscilla Asonibare, CEO and Founder of Creatives Auction has emerged the N1 million first price winner of the 2022 edition of the GEN Nigeria Creative Business Cup. She will proceed to Denmark next year to represent Nigeria at the global level of the competition
She emerged winner ahead of Printy + Packer and Pup Industries as first and second runner ups respectively. They received N500 thousand each from the organizers of the competition.
The Creative Business Cup is an annual competition put together by the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) in partnership with Mastercard Foundation to celebrate and promote creative works by young entrepreneurs across the globe.
The GEN Nigerian and the Creative Business Cup competition in the country is anchored by the Enterprise Development Center of the Pan Atlantic University. This year’s edition is the fourth in a series, producing winners that have very innovative businesses which are impacting the environment and humanity positively.
At the grand finale which featured ten finalists, held Wednesday at the EDC, Priscilla Asonibare presented a pitch on her young company which focuses on creating a platform for African creative industry (visual artists, photographers and others) to reach a wider global audience and help them sell their works.
The Kwara born Priscilla, while chatting with Continental Economy Magazine, expressed delight over the win and called it a validation of what she is passionate about and has put her energy to work on. She had to quit her job to pursue this venture in line with her initial dream to be a visual artist.
“I feel extremely happy and humbled as well. It is a validation of what am doing. I had to quite my job to follow this and it means a lot to me, because I wanted to pursue the dream to become a visual artist, but there were obstacles on the way. Through Creatives Aunction, I want to start to address these obstacles one after the other as much as we can and empowered. We need to let the next generation of creative artists know that they can survive and have good lives”; Priscila said
The graduate of computer science from Babcock University worked briefly with a tractor marketing company where she played multiple roles that earned her multiple experiences within a short time. Passion for the art industry moved her out to apply those experiences in starting something innovative.
She described the journey to the top ten and then the winner as an amazing one having learnt so much from the wonderful mentorship by EDC, interaction with other young people with creative businesses at the booth camp.
Priscila said “African artists have the second largest art market in the world. We want to start to market their works on a larger scale. We want to start to educate people on the need to collect these art works considering the cultural gains, the empowerment gains and other gains. This is an industry that can reduce unemployment in Africa”
