Nigeria Announces MEST Africa Challenge Country Final Winner
Written by Brandason, Strategic Communications Firm for the MEST Africa Challenge.
In the penultimate country final of the MEST Africa Challenge, the diverse and multi-ethnic country of Nigeria proved that they are indeed one of Africa’s leading ‘tech startup’ nations. Presenting nine compelling innovations, the Nigerian country finals was an intense one, leaving audiences guessing as to who would emerge the winner right until the very last minute.
Each startup had four minutes to pitch, followed by another four-minute question and answer session with our judges for the day; Patricia Jumi; Executive Director and Co-founder of Growth Africa, Ife Ojobanikan; Investment Associate at Microtraction, Mark Ihimoyan; Microsoft’s Director of Business Development for the Middle East & Africa and Josh Okpata; Venture Partner at MEST Africa.
The competing finalists were evaluated based on their value proposition, impact, size of their target market, customer identification, revenue model, competitor analysis, growth strategy, traction-to-date, and the expertise of their founding team among others.
Social Lender
Social Lender, set the ball rolling with their intriguing concept of lending money to those in need based on their social credibility.
As a digital financial service platform, Social Lender enables financial institutions like banks to extend formal financial services to the ‘unbankable’ in society, people who live off-line or in rural areas, and mostly work in the informal sector.
With over 10 million Nigerians living without access to banking facilities, Social Lender builds a social reputation score for the ‘unbankable’ based on their social connections and the financial stability of people who can guarantee for them. They extend financial credit through SMS, USSD, mobile apps, ATM’s and APIs, and their platforms can also be used for other financial activities like, paying bills, school fees, and applying for instant loans.
During their Q&A session, Judge Patricia asked how they confirm the genuineness of a guarantor’s financial status. He explained that clients and their guarantors are required to register with official government-certified documents. Furthermore, Social Lender’s connection with most financial institutions allows them to easily verify the financial history and status of a guarantor.
Sycamore Integrated Solutions
Sycamore Integrated Solutions, pitched next, represented by their COO and co-founder, Mayowa Adeosun. He stated that in a PWC survey report in Nigeria, it was found that SMEs contribute to 48% of National GDP and 84% of employment, a testament to how impactful SMEs are in building the economy.
Unfortunately, it is difficult for SMEs to access readily available and affordable financing solutions due to factors such as high-interest rates, cumbersome paperwork with lengthy requirements, and rigorous collateral requirements.
Sycamore provides a peer to peer lending solution that connects credible borrowers with savvy lenders over an online marketplace. They also offer flexible payment terms with low-interest rates.
Following their pitch, Judge Josh Okpata asked how Sycamore Integrated managed the risks involved in lending money. To this, Mayowa explained that they lend money based on financial credits and available collateral, ensuring that clients can pay back the money they borrow.
TOJU
The third startup to present was TOJU, led by their Co-founder Sadiq Tijani. Quoting a statistic from EFINA 2018, Sadiq stated that 58 million Nigerians are financially underserved. This is because formal financial service solutions are unable to cater to Nigerians with low English literacy and access to the internet, yet have high transaction fees. Informal financial service solution providers also present the issue of long reconciliation time, low liquidity, and poor record-keeping.
The solution TOJU offers is a record management app and financial service toolbox for thrift collectors, cooperatives, and local saving clubs which makes it easier for financial institutions to serve their clients reliably and for their customers to access their offline services affordably and flexibly.
In answering the question of traction or projections for the coming years, Sadiq replied that in the next one year, Toju aims to bring on board 5000 SME agents and engage 750,000 MSMEs.
IderaOS
An online sales and delivery platform, IderaOS is helping African entrepreneurs start, manage, and grow their businesses from the first sale to full scale.
According to co-founder Rasheed Ridwan, most businesses fail because of bad decision making, difficulty in finding financial support, and lack of required amenities to fully run a business and meet clients’ demands.
IderaOS is a one-stop-shop for everything an entrepreneur needs to successfully run an online business. Within the next year, they aim to build a trusted reputation with their customers and become a community that guarantees no scam purchases.
Gradely
Gradely is a personalized online learning platform harnessing the power of data and AI to help schools and parents intervene in real-time to children’s learning gaps. CEO and Co-founder, Boye Oshinaga, explained that one of the critical issues on the continent is learning gaps in our education system, which only compound over time. Although more African children are going to school than ever before, there is still a huge literacy gap because students are not receiving a quality education.
Gradely allows students to do their homework and practice online, view recommended video lessons and access tutoring sessions. Their best feature is that parents and schools get real-time feedback on learning progress.
During this COVID-19 period, regular class sessions can also be held online, with AI-assisted assessment and the ability to view student progress.
Gradely is currently partnered with four schools and has signed over two hundred and fifty parents on board. Their business model centers around content subscription and on-demand tutoring sessions.
Judge Mark asked if they plan to market to government schools, to which Oshinaga responded that they are currently focused on partnering with private schools since response there has been a lot more positive. They do however have plans of expanding to government schools in the near future.
Padimi
Next up was Padimi, presented by their CEO and Co-founder, Seth Usanga. Padimi is a social enterprise bridging the social security gap of unbankable Africans by providing easy access to healthcare, micro-insurance, and financial literacy.
Padimi has partnered insurance companies and banks to provide solutions via its website, providing easy access to financial services, affordable health care, and insurance plans.
During the Q&A, judge Patricia asked how they engage partners since their packages are focused on attracting masses and might not be a suitable investment for other financial institutions. Seth replied that their packages will benefit other financial institutions as well since they use their information to offer integrated solutions to customers.
Scrapays
Scrapays was the only waste solution company to pitch in Nigeria, represented by their lead business developer, Tope Sulaimon. The startup allows users to sell their recyclable waste through an online platform at premium prices with convenience and ease.
Over 85% of recyclable materials are not recovered, and yet waste is expected to quadruple over the next three decades, with Nigeria having the fastest waste production rate in sub-Saharan Africa.
Scrapays can be easily accessed through USSD, SMS, and their app and works with hosts, vendors, and collectors. Hosts keep the collected waste before they are recycled, the vendors are those who sell recyclable waste, and collectors pick up the waste from the client’s location. The waste is weighed and paid for per ton, depending on the type of recyclable material it is.
Judge Josh wanted to clarify who their target market was, and why clients should use their service instead of local scrap dealers. According to Tope, their advantage is they offer a pick-up- demand service and also partner local scrap dealers.
At Your Service Technologies Ltd
At Your Service Technologies Ltd is a tech-enabled human resource platform that helps companies operating in Africa to easily recruit the right talent for part-time or full-time roles. They focus on helping organizations find professionals who match their immediate needs.
Godfrey Orji is their Head of marketing and communications, and in his pitch, he explained the three problems they are trying to solve; the high rate of unemployment, the mismatch of skills and high acquisition cost in recruitment. Their HR platform makes it easier for recruiters and employers to search, find, and hire the right talents by providing detailed profiling of applicants and verifying the proficiency of the skills they offer.
Their competitive edge is their pre-recorded video interviews, skill verification, high customer retention, and their filtered search.
When asked how many people actively visit the platform during the Q&A, Godfrey answered that a rough estimate would be about 1000 real-time users monthly.
Edusko
The last pitch for the day was Edusko, a platform connecting parents and students with quality education and finance in Africa, Europe, and America seamlessly. The problem they’re seeking to solve is the low quality of education, low funds for schools to operate, limited information about schools, and the difficulty parents have in verifying quality schools for their wards.
Edusko provides extensive information about schools, both at home and abroad, making it easier for parents to make decisions about where to place their children. They also provide resources to schools to increase the quality of their teaching as well.
The questions for Edusko centered around their traction so far and how COVID-19 had affected their business. Thankfully, COVID-19 was not crippling for the startup. Rather, it increased their users significantly, and they intend on maintaining the traction it’s given them.
And with that, the pitching session came to a close. The judges exited the main competition for a private chatroom to deliberate on the winner while the finalists answered questions from the audience.
The judges returned a few minutes later, with Judge Patricia commending the teams on their pitches and expressing her interest in seeing them progress over the years. Judge Josh commented on how confident they all were while pitching and advised them to keep practicing their virtual pitches, to become more comfortable with the format.
Ultimately, Gradely was announced as the overall winner for the Nigeria country finals to much applause and congratulations.
In his speech as the country winner, Boye Oshinaga thanked the judges and his fellow participants for making it a worthwhile endeavor. He also thanked MEST Africa for continuing the competition virtually despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 and expressed excitement for the grand finale in August.
MEST Africa Challenge Partners
The MEST Africa Challenge has always been supported by local ecosystem partners who help in making each country final relevant to the locality. MEST will like to say thank you to its Nigerian ecosystem partners, ImpactHub Lagos, She Leads Africa, Seedstars, KLab, AfriLabs, Briter Bridges, VC4A, MoveMeBack and Levers in heels as well as lead partner for the competition, leading tech innovator and conglomerate; Microsoft.
MEST Africa Challenge: South Africa
Next week, the MEST Africa Challenge goes to South Africa in the last country final for the 2020 virtual edition. Who wins $50,00 in equity funding? Register to watch live, here.
About the MEST Africa Challenge
Now in its third year, the MEST Africa Challenge is an Africa-wide tech startup pitch competition offering up to $50,000 in equity investment and a chance to join MEST’s incubator and start-up community of talented entrepreneurs as they build and scale successful businesses that add value to African economies. It has become an establishment in the start-up technology industry, giving an unprecedented global platform to hundreds of local tech entrepreneurs in Africa. This year, the Challenge expanded from five markets to nine, embracing early-stage companies in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Sénégal, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, and providing the opportunity for the Challenge organizers — MEST and lead partner — Microsoft, together with other ecosystem partners the opportunity to support even more startups through funding and resources.
