To celebrate the 2023 International Youth Day in Ekiti, the IUK KTN Nigerian Team, in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation, Science & Digital Economy, headed by the Seun Fakuade, held an event to showcase the top three innovators, who have emerged from.a long line of innovators and inventors. This event gave them an opportunity of pitching their ideas and getting awarded a total £6,000 in prize money.
The top 3 young innovators were, Yomi Adetunji representing Rice Inventory Storage Exchange (RISE), Mayowa Olajide, representing Motivar, and Odunola Olabintan representing The Health City.
Interestingly, all the young innovators are from Ekiti, and were selected after a competitive and rigorous application process.
ForYomi Adetunji of RISE, his idea was to use tech to drive RISE Agric Warehousing, in order to help and connect rice processors in the state. They have identified about 5 underused warehouses, and they are currently using the one in Ikoro Ekiti for the pilot phase.
Mayowa Olajide’s (Motivar) idea is to improve efficiency and distribution of digital education, from data obtained by them, thereby solving the problem of quality access to education as a 2017 report shows that Nigeria ranked 124 out of 137 in access to quality education.
Mayowa is building an operating system for e-learning support to help learners find and complete courses online. He noted that this is not another Coursera, rather a plug-in that allows learning support for their target audience.
For Odunola Olabintan of The Health City, their dream is to create easy access to sexual and reproductive care. Data presented by Odunola showed only 37% of adolescents in Africa have basic knowledge about sexual and reproductive health.
The Health City has identified problems such as; lack of access to medicare, fear of stigma, cost of service and ignorance, as leading causes of sexually transmitted diseases. To combat this, they have designed AskTheDoc, a platform where, with just 1,00 naira, you can chat with a doctor for 30mins from the comfort of your privacy.
They have also created a platform to get information on Sexual Health, and have access sexual products. In other words, when young adults are shy to enter a medicine store to purchase a condom or contraceptives, the platform will be available for use, with the products also coming affordable.
After a review from the panel of judges, The Health City came 1st, while RISE, came 2nd, with Motivar, coming 3rd. Each innovator went home with £3,000, £1,800 and £1,200 respectively.
Seun Fakuade, the Honorable Commissioner for Innovation, Science & Digital Economy, expressed Ekiti State’s commitment to innovation, and announced the launch of a Public Sector Digital Fellowship, to avail young innovators to use their skills to solve public sector challenges, which is in line with the Executive Governor’s dream of making Ekiti a prominent tech-focused state.
While congratulating the winners, Country lead of IUK KTN, Joshua Adedeji used the opportunity to assure participants at the event of their commitment towards energizing the innovation ecosystem in Ekiti State, through continued partnership and support for young innovators.
The event, marked a significant stride towards encouraging young innovators and advancing technological in Ekiti State