OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Five startups have won $10,000 each from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, sponsored Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology, NOGTECH, Hackathon.
They showcased their innovative solutions at the Demo Day on Thursday, December 10, 2020.
The NOGTECH Hackathon was launched in July 2020, when the NCDMB called on startups, capable of solving crucial challenges facing Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to apply for its $US50,000 grant.
From across the country, 630 promising startups applied, and at the end of the screening phase, only 15 finalists were selected to proceed to NOGTECH Hackathon which held in September 2020 and spanned across three days.
At the event crowning, five startups won and got $10,000 grant each. The cash prize was in addition to NCDMB’s support, mentorship, network access, resources to scale their businesses as well as a three-month incubation programme.
The winners were AirSynQ, Homefort Energy, Gricd Mote, Kiakia Gas and Fuel Intellisense.
While AirsynQ focuses on tackling pipeline vandalism; HomeFort makes cooking gas available to low-income households on a pay-as-you-go model; Gricd improves real time storage conditions of temperature-sensitive medications both stationary and transient; KiaKia Gas 360 updates users on the safety status of cylinders, and Fuel Intellisense automates vehicle identification and fuel management systems.
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Speaking on Demo Day, Francisca Kanayo Chiedu, the Programmes Director noted that efforts have been made during the incubation period to ensure that each team emerges with an innovation that fulfils the solutions pitched at the onset.
“The Demo Day is a culmination of a three-month-long incubation programme, which began in October 2020, where we provided the teams with all resources to bolster their innovations. We assigned them to mentors, made resources available from the NCDMB’s Capacity Building Division, and helped them identify their pilot clients and markets. We are excited that all efforts have borne results,” he said.