The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), had supported three Nigerian startups with the sum of $15,000 each to develop their innovative ideas towards becoming entrepreneurs and achieving the digital economy agenda.
\nThe seed fund was given on Tuesday\u00a0at the Demonstration Day of the first Cohort of the Idea Hatching (iHatch) Startup Incubation Programme.
\nIt wasorganised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in collaboration with JICA in Abuja.
\nThe iHatch programme was championed by Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI),a subsidiary of NITDA.
\nThe Tide source reports that in March 2022, the first cohort, a five-month programme began with over 5,000 applications that were received, while eight were selected to pitch their ideas.
\nThe winner of the demonstration was Betalife, a health tech startup company that offers 24\/7 real-time blood donation tracking and blood requests.
\nThe second position was won by Xolani Health Limited,an Artificial Intelligence-assisted tool that support clinical decision making for healthcare workers in low resource settings.
\nThe third place winner was Every Farmer,a solution that focuses on accessing funds for agricultural value chain.
\nMs Favour James, Founder, Betalife, who was happy said the seed fund would be channeled to marketing and creating awareness for solutions.
\n\u201cWe are going to utilise the money in engaging more professionals and in our marketing strategy, because blood donation is not a popular thing in Nigeria.
\n\u201cWe will also invest in building collaboration between hospitals and blood banks,\u201dJames said.
\nMr Susumu Yuzurio,Chief Representative,JICA Nigeria, congratulated the startups, while acknowledging that all of them were winners in their respective manners.<\/p>\n
Yuzurio encouraged them to sustain the knowledge they had acquired towards building a digital economy for the nation.
\nMr Kashifu Inuwa,Director-General of NITDA,at the demonstration by the startups,said that the programme was targeted at refining business ideas of the innovators and developing the digital economy agenda.
\n\u201cThis partnership is in furtherance to the commitment of NITDA in sustaining the promotion and growth of digital innovation and entrepreneurship, promotion of indigenous content derived from of the seven pillars of our Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) 2021-2024.
\n\u201cThis is to increase the number of Innovation-Driven Enterprises (IDEs) viz- a- viz sustaining the growth of Nigeria\u2019s digital economy.
\n\u201cThe partnership with JICA in the implementation of the iHatch programme is part of our initiatives to strengthen the tech and innovation ecosystem.
\n\u201cThis is for the creation of more IDEs that will invariably contribute to creation of jobs for our teeming youth and the prosperity of our country,\u201d\u00a0Inuwa said.
\nHe added that programme took the startups through a series of coaching, lectures, and boot-camps to generate scalable and adaptable business models in the country.
\nOnuwa recalled the selection process assessed the startups\u2019 ideas based on the criteria of profitability, scalability, social impact, idea technique, competitive advantage, experience, and a clearly defined future roadmap.
\nThe DG said that the agency and JICA would be extending the third cohort across the six geo-political zones of the country by the end of the second Cohort that would also span to five months.
\nHe said: \u201cNITDA remains committed to working with relevant stakeholders and partners in implementing programmes and initiatives that will accelerate innovation.
\n\u201cThey will provide the much-needed jobs for our youths, while also nurturing their entrepreneurial spirit to catalyse the Nigerian digital economy to the next level.\u201d
\nMr Nao Fuwa, JICA expert, urged the startups to think of why they studied business and why they considered opening a business.
\n\u201cBrushing up a business model is important, but brushing your passion will attract people to your business,\u201d he said.
\nThe other startups include eDokta, a Telehomecare solution for virtual consultation and home healthcare services,S-Med, a solution that enable patients access their medical records.
\nThey also include Authentic Qrtech, a solution for authentication of fake products,adulteration and counterfeit goods.
\nOther startups that demonstrated their ideas were Tech and Identity Solution Lab,an automation identity for background check platform and Afrinet Powertech,a cleantech solution that enhances energy efficiency for affordable electricity access.
\nThe Demo Day was the end of the first cohort that was launched in March and lasted for five months and it also held concurrently with the launch of the second cohort.(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), had supported three Nigerian startups with the sum of $15,000 each to develop their innovative ideas towards becoming entrepreneurs and achieving the digital economy agenda. The seed fund was given on Tuesday\u00a0at the Demonstration Day of the first Cohort of the Idea Hatching (iHatch) Startup Incubation Programme. It wasorganised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-icttelecom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303408,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303387\/revisions\/303408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}