Three Nigerians win £6,000 Innovate UK KTN funding competition

Three young Nigerians have been awarded the cash prize of £6,000 for their innovative ideas in using technology to solve societal challenges.

The winners are Yomi Adetunji representing Rice Inventory Storage Exchange (RISE), Mayowa Olajide, representing Motivar, and Odunola Olabintan of The Health City.

The winners are from Ekiti state.

The competition was organised by Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) in collaboration with the Ekiti state government.

The competition gave young Nigerians in Ekiti an opportunity to pitch their innovative ideas.

The innovators were selected after a competitive and rigorous application process.

At the end of the competition, the panel of judges graded the idea of Health City as the first position, RISE came second, while Motivar came third.

The first position was awarded £3,000, while the second and third received £1,800 and £1,200, respectively.

Speaking at the event, Seun Fakuade, Ekiti’s commissioner for innovation, science and digital economy, said the state government is committed to driving the zeal for innovation in young people.

Fakuade announced the launch of a public sector digital fellowship for young innovators to use their skills to solve the challenges in the public sector.

During the competition, the idea of Adetunji of RISE, focuses on using tech to facilitate the warehousing of rice and connect rice processors in the state.

Five warehouses were identified in the state and the pilot phase of the project has started in Ikoro-Ekiti.

Olajide’s (Motivar) idea is to improve the efficiency and distribution of digital education. The innovator is building an operating system for e-learning support to help learners find and complete courses online.

For Olabintan of The Health City, the idea is to create easy access to sexual and reproductive care.

The innovator identified problems such as; lack of access to medicare, fear of stigma, cost of service and ignorance, as leading causes of sexually transmitted diseases.

To combat the problems, AskTheDoc, a digital platform in which people can chat with a doctor for 30 minutes, was created.