Grace Ashiru
The purpose of the interest shown by ONDI and JICA in Nigeria’s startup ecosystem is to strengthen and assist businesses and founders who are actively working to solve some of Nigeria’s most pressing issues in clean tech, health tech, and agritech industries.
They did this in collaboration with Venture Park and initiated the preliminary stages of the Next Innovation with Japan (NINJA) program; cohort 2 began its search for companies that are actively engaging in the industries mentioned above by launching a call for applications campaign that lasted for four weeks.
After this stage, around 1,100 applications came in from various nations like Uganda, India, Egypt, Kea, South Africa, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and others; the key screening process then began.
After the conclusion of a phase of selection that was carefully structured, thirty startup companies were successful in advancing to the semi-final round. After the additional screening, five companies emerged as finalists. These startups were discussed at length during the virtual conference hosted in Japan by NIKKEI in collaboration with other organizations.
There were 5,045 persons in attendance, making this one of the most popular webinars ever held in Japan. That must have been a wonderful chance for some of the featured entrepreneurs to be able to participate.
They have begun communicating with one another and bonding as a cohort while they wait for the official opening of the accelerator program. This will facilitate easy relationship flow once they are participating in the program. On the other hand, the three-month NINJA accelerator program kicked out yesterday, August 4th, 2022, with an orientation session that was given by the program manager of Venture Park Ajibike Jimoh, with the assistance of Nao Fuwa of JICA and Yakubu Musa of NITDA, in addition to other members of the team who were present on the call
The following is a brief description of each of the NINJA finalists who were selected for the program:
Eight Medical is a network of pre-hospital care providers who deliver urgent and emergency medical attention when it is needed the most.
They work nonstop to make sure that appropriate medical attention can be provided to you and your loved ones at any hour of the day or night. Visit their website for more information: https://www.8medical.co.
Kitovu: They give farmers access to higher-value marketplaces, which allows them to sell their harvests more easily and for higher prices than they could otherwise achieve. Farmers also have the option of storing their crops in the storage facilities provided by Kitovu in the hopes of realizing increased profits due to rising market prices. Have a look at them in this post: https://www.kitovu.com.ng/
Wekebere::They are planning the prenatal care of the future with the assistance of various technologies that will benefit both moms and babies. In neurology and cardiovascular disease domains, the team has a demonstrated track record of producing the most cutting-edge patient monitoring systems. They also receive support from top medical advisers located throughout Nigeria. These advisors have direct experience working with high-risk pregnancies in underserved regions and offer doctors the skills and information they need to predict and manage the outcomes of pregnancies better. You can learn more about them at wekebere.org.
eCOBbA: a platform for the world’s unbanked and underprivileged communities, which uses community savings and lending groups and community savings as a leverage point to boost industrialization. Their group uses a business model known as B2B2C. The primary customers they target are people working in the informal sectors, young people, women, members of improvised communities, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in agricultural value chains. You may find out more about them at https://www.ecobba.com/.
Alabaster: By utilizing cool technology and conducting in-depth data analysis, the Alabaster team is working to reduce the amount of wasted food. They are a team of energetic young people who aim to lower the amount of post-harvest loss experienced by fruit producers and raise the profit margin for the typical farmer. You may learn more about them by going to their website, www.kipitfresh.com.
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