CEM REPORT ENTREPRENEURSHIP It was moment of excitement and appreciation as the Enterprise Development Center coordinated Global Entrepreneurship Network awarded prizes to the national winners of the 2022 editions of the Entrepreneurship World Cup and the Youth Entrepreneurship Dialogue Competition.
My Food Angels emerged the national winner of the Entrepreneurship World Cup while Eti Farms won the star prize of the Youth Entrepreneurship Dialogue Competition at the end of the 4th edition of the competitions.
At the award ceremony which took place on Tuesday at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Vitoria Island, My Food Angels received N500,000 in cash while Eti Farms received the sum of N200,000 cash. In addition to this cash prizes, there is an award of USD100,000 in kind support by top global organizations that are partnering on the initiative.
The first and the second runners up for the Entrepreneurship World Cup, Creamson Technology and My Stash Inc received a cash sum N300,000 and N200,000 respectively. First and second runner up of the Youth Entrepreneurship Dialogue Competition went to Haqqumen Farms and Organic Natural Food who received N150,000 and N100,000 each.
The cheques were presented to the winners by a member of Development Bank of Nigeria that have partnered with GEN Nigeria on the program over the years. Providus Bank is another partner that have supported the program as well.
This award of prizes is the second in 3 weeks still in the same pitching competition where one million naira was won in cash by Creative Auctions who came top in the Creative Enterprise Competition. GEN Nigeria and EDC have focused commendably on promoting and supporting entrepreneurship in Nigeria working with international organizations.
Global Entrepreneurship Network was established in 2017 by the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan Atlantic University in partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN with support from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
GEN has been running several programs; training, competition and other activities towards developing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nigeria specifically for young people across all sectors of the economy.
The Entrepreneurship World Cup is a global competition running in 180 countries. It was registered in Nigeria as a medium to help young people overcome the challenge of finding where to berth their business ideas. Without having to know anybody, young people with viable business ideas have opportunity to get support in cash and in kind in partnership with Development Bank of Nigeria and other global brands such as Mastercard Foundation, Amazon and others.
For this year’s edition of the Entrepreneurship World Cup, 10,800 applications were received which was scaled down to about 500 who had the opportunity to be mentored online after which they submitted their pitch. These were scrutinized to select the final the 10 from which the winners were selected. The winner of the first prize
While talking with media, MD/CEO of My Food Angels, Olapeju Ommah, expressed delight over the victory while calling it a validation for what they are doing. She explained that the business started in 2018 after she lost a sister-in-law to stress. She decided to set it up to shop for individuals and professionals who are too busy to do that for themselves.
She said; “am very grateful and excited that finally, the work we are doing is being validated and appreciated; just to go to market for people.
“This winning will not only assist in servicing the existing customers of the company, we will be able to take more customers and employ more hands to truly fulfil our purpose. Currently we have done over ten thousand orders since we started.”
Dr Olawale Anifowose, Managing Director of GEN Nigeria while speaking with the press shed light into the competition and the uniqueness of this year’s edition
He said; “One unique and exciting thing about the 10 businesses on final list is that they all have technology embedded in their operations. This goes to prove that the future is technology.
In this year’s Youth Entrepreneurship Dialogue Competition, the creative and food/agricultural sectors were the main focus. It is very interesting to see that young people are thinking of agriculture from a different perspective right now. You have all listen to what they are doing, the three of them (winners) are all in agriculture (food and agriculture).
But it also says something about what the government has been saying about agriculture being an opportunity for young people. They may not have to go the farm, there is a whole value chain across different segment of agriculture that needs to be developed.”
This competition apart from the initial cash, has a long-term impact on the participants and winners. GEN and EDC provide extended partnership with winners to further developing their skills and structure for their businesses especially to access more funding
Dr Wale said; “We have quite a number of financial institutions in the country, they don’t just give finance. This competition enables us to know you, support you, hand-hold and prepare you to be investment ready. This is because, anyone that want to give out money do make sure that the money will come back. One of the key things in this kind of transactions is knowing want you want to do with the money.
“Every participant in this program that get to this stage of the competition have this platform to prepare them to access money beyond the cash grant being giving them.
“For the past four years, this program has benefited 2000 people who have gone through our training and other mentorship platforms free of charge.
“It is important to also say that with the youth entrepreneurship dialogue, we also have a dialogue series where we invite NYSC and other young people from even secondary school to the Enterprise Development Center during our annual Global Entrepreneurship Week which happens every third week in November. Over a thousand young people attend that program.
“For the winners of this competition, we have a three months engagement with them to ensure that they are able to apply the seed capital. When we discover a gap and there is need for more, we can now push for more funding”.
The Deputy Director of EDC Nneka Okekearu congratulated the winners while deeply appreciating DBN and Providus Bank for their partnership. She solicited for their continuous support.
