Presidency, NITDA, others laud StartUP Friday
Mr. Tolu Ogunlesi, President Mohammadu Buhari’s special adviser on digital media, and Dr. Vincent Olatunji, acting director general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), have lauded the organiser of StartUP Friday, for the monthly event which has become the vehicle for discovering and nurturing technology startups in the country.
In his remark, Dr. Olatunji said he was impressed with the rich content at the event and urged the participating startups to imbibe the spirit of entrepreneurship. “Coming up with an idea is not enough. You need to learn the rudiment of business from established business. That is the only way Nigeria can march the foreign countries in terms of development”.
Ogunlesi on his part commended the organiser, adding: “I think it is a good thing to witness such a large gathering of startups in the ICT ecosystem in Abuja. This is a revolution”.
StartUP Friday is organised by the Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE), a subsidiary under NITDA, as an event where nascent companies, irrespective of the sector and solution offering, gather to learn from selected CEOs of some of the established companies.
Bunmi Okunowo, national coordinator of OIIE, disclosed that StartUP Friday has increased over the months from 89 participants in February to
2,210 in
July, consequently creating more funding opportunities, new ventures, new products and more markets for startups.
“This is all about community building, creating a networking opportunity that brings resourceful people within the reach of the ecosystem. They are part of the ecosystem, and we are tapping from their experience. Another dimension to this edition of StartUP Friday is the introduction of our new program we called FutureHACK, which is a geared towards solving tomorrow’s problem today”, he added.
Among other speakers at the occasion are Andy Madaki who advised the startups to leverage on the power of “barter and partnerships”.
Manager at Google Nigeria, Jola Makinde, also said the startups “need to be at this type of event in order to learn how to grow their businesses”.
The startups that attended the recent event include: ArtNigeria, ChowHub, Jebitum Techxion, Edves Suite and College Mobile. Others are Huvid Connect, Poles, Persona, PiggyBank and Solar Backpack Cedarseed Foundation.
Lois Auta who, is a representative of Solar Backpack Cedarseed Foundation, said she had learnt new ways to innovate, and also expressed her expectations from the programme.
In her words: “I have met new startups executives. I have met friends whom I have not seen for over ten years. I have made new friends. The audience was inspired by my pitch presentation and I have got business connection. I like this big platform. I look forward to more opportunities and collaborations with OIIE”.
Also speaking, the representative of College Mobile, Kingsley Ezejiaku said his expectations are to be accepted into an accelerator programme that would fast-track the development of the company, grant access to strategic partnerships and new opportunities.
