OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Five startups that won $10,000 each from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB-sponsored NOGTECH Hackathon, will be showcasing their innovative solutions at the Demo Day scheduled for Thursday, December 10, 2020.
The Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology, NOGTECH Hackathon was launched in July 2020, when the NCDMB called on startups, capable of solving crucial challenges facing Nigeria’s Oil & 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.
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. The showcase on Demo Day will be a testament to the growth of the startups so far.”
While commenting on the impact of the programme, Dr Ama Ikuru, the General Manager of NCDMB’s Capacity Building Division, said “the programme has been remarkable as it has created great awareness about local innovators and developers and what Nigerians can do with science and technology. The impact of the programme, in terms of the potential value, exceeded our expectations. We see the need for sustainability and will support the startups. The startups were fantastic and demonstrated strong passion and commitments towards the development of their innovations/products. The Board will continue to support the startups in the development and commercialization of their products.”
NOGTECH: 5 winners emerge, get US$50,000, product development
OO Nwoye, the Director of Incubation remarked that what happens on the Demo Day will be a reflection of innovation at the core.
“The DEMO Day will be an outright showcase of innovation. We’ll be seeing smart people that the Government has empowered with the capacity to spin off local innovations and build companies, capable of bidding for technical-intensive projects, and solve problems at the larger scale. On the D-Day, we’ll have the teams display their innovations and the practical applications of all they’ve learnt during incubation, before stakeholders in the Oil & Gas industry, seasoned panelists, investors and the NCDMB executives.”
The Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology Incubation Demo Day holds on Thursday, December 10, 2020, at Southern Sun, Ikoyi, Lagos Nigeria.
While attendance is strictly based on invitation, interested stakeholders in the industry willing to attend could signify their interest via https://nogtechdemoday.splashthat.com/
NOGTECH is Nigeria’s first Digital Technology Innovation supporting solutions that address problems in the Nigeran Oil and Gas Industry. The first edition saw 5 startups win $10,000 each to scale their innovation to daunting challenges in the Oil and Gas sector.
The Nigerian Oil and Gas Technology Hackathon aims to enable local partnership in the technology revolution ongoing in the oil and gas industry and birth new sub-segment activities that create employment opportunities.
NOGTECH will offer seed funding, business mentorship and incubation to selected ideas, and provide an opportunity to create world-class solutions for operators and service organisation within the industry, and other linkage sectors.
