NCC: Four innovative tech startups will receive N20 million in grants

Prof. Umar Danbatta, NCC’s Executive Vice-Chairman, is accompanied by dignitaries at the grand prize ceremony on Thursday in Abuja, where he is represented by Alhasan Haru.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has awarded a N20 million grant to four deserving Nigerian tech startups for their innovative digital solutions aimed at reducing insecurity and advancing Nigeria’s IoT frontier.

Prof. Umar Danbatta, NCC’s Executive Vice-Chairman, stated this on Thursday in Abuja during the grand prize award ceremony for the ‘Virtual NCC Internet of Things (IoT) Code Camp and Hackathon 2021,’ held at the commission’s headquarters.

Clearflow system Hub and Aelaus Engineering teams/Hyech Electronics solutions were two startups that focused on IoT (Internet of Things) for kidnapping and banditry.

Kalibotics and CyberNorth Tech, the other two startups, focused on assistive robotics for effective e-waste management.

According to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN), the winners of the second edition of the startup awards each received a N5 million grant.

The event, according to Danbatta, was planned in accordance with the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan 2021-2025 as well as the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP).

Alhasan Haru, NCC’s Director of New Media and Information Security, represented the executive vice-chairman.

“Today’s event is in line with Nigeria’s Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) 2020, which emphasizes the importance of promoting local production, services, innovation, and the use of local materials,” he said.

“This is in accordance with the Presidential Executive Order 5 of 2017, which mandates the promotion of Nigerian content in contracts as well as science, engineering, and technology.”

“Through this event, the Commission’s Strategic Vision Plan 2021-2025 is demonstrated, which captures the need to encourage the development of new technologies and indigenous content through cutting-edge research in order to stimulate sustained economic growth and development in Nigeria.”

“Our goal for this year’s Hackathon is to test our young digital-driven population’s creativity and harness their innovative prowess to develop Smart Solutions.”

“To use emerging technologies to address banditry, kidnapping, and e-waste management challenges.”

Mr Ubale Maska, NCC Commissioner, Technical Services, had earlier stated that the event had demonstrated the critical role that the telecommunications sector plays in providing innovative solutions to Nigeria’s social and environmental problems.

Maska, who was represented by Kelechi Nwokwo, the NCC’s Head of Research and Development, reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to continuing to support innovations for nation building.

He stated that the goal was to develop innovative Internet of Things (IOT) solutions to combat kidnapping and banditry, as well as to improve the country’s e-waste management.

“We received 54 proposals from 34 organizations at the close of entry, but after a two-stage evaluation by the panel of judges, four top startups, two from each of the Hackathon’s thematic areas, were chosen to pitch.”

He said there were four final winning digital solutions from indigenous startups.

Dr. Uche Uwaje, the Chairman of the Panel of Judges, stated that all of the entries deserved to win.

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One of the winners, Mr Francis Idachaba, CEO of Clearflow System Hub, responded by saying he would put the grant to good use and achieve the goal for which it was intended.

The initiatives were applauded by representatives from security agencies, telecommunications operators, the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and other sister agencies.

According to NAN, the first edition of this event was held in 2020, and the winners took home N9 million in prizes.