Emma Okonji
One year after establishing the state-of-the-art Ilorin Innovation Hub, in collaboration with Kwara State Government, IHS, a global telecoms infrastructure company, yesterday, showcased 19 Startup Accelerators that have been trained in the last one year to global investors.
Out of the over 50 startups that have been groomed in the first cohort, IHS showcased 19 of them that were market ready with their solutions to global investors that watched them pitched their solutions during the Ilorin Innovation Hub Demo Day, which held yesterday at the innovation hub.
Nine of the startups were from the Ilorin Innovation Hub accelerator programme, while 10 were from the incubator programme, and they pitched their solutions that cut across power generation, power consumption, power storage, critical fibre infrastructure protection, health care, agriculture, renewable energy, and waste management, among other areas of needs.
Speaking during the event, the Chief Commercial Officer, IHS Nigeria, Mr. Akeem Adeshina, said IHS partnered Kwara State Government in creating the innovation hub for the younger generation to have the place, the access, and the platform to actually flourish.
“They can be creative, they can be innovative, and then they equally have a listening ear to where it matters. We have brought in global investors, the government, the financiers, and even the customers, and corporate organisations to listen to them, and hear them actually change the world.
“So beyond the training, which is building the competence, we have an opportunity for startups accelerators to now pitch to investors for them to actually move into commercialisation stage. So for us, I think that is quite significant,” Adeshina said.
Senior Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, IHS Nigeria, Kazeem Oladepo, said in the last one year, IHS, through the innovation hub, had the opportunity to work with young people and specialists to grow talent and nurture them.
“Today we’re showcasing the work that they’ve done in the past few months, and we’re also looking at our journey so far with the state government in the aspiration to deepen talent, to create innovative businesses, to transform our communities and to change lives generally across communities where we operate. The investors we had today were just a small cluster of the interest that we have seen across both local and international landscape. The startups we are showcasing have the ideas, concepts, products that solves everyday problems, which you would see in almost all the accelerators or the incubators,” Oladepo said.
In his welcome address, the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, who was represented by the Commissioner for Business, Innovation and Technology, Kwara State, Damilola Yusuf-Adeledun, commended IHS for the initiative as well as the startups for their determination to learn and develop tech solutions that could address both local and global challenges.
Managing Director, Ilorin Innovation Hub, Temi Kolawole, said: “We see innovation and technology as one of the biggest tools that will drive our country forward to where it needs to be. When you look at countries around the world, and you look at the level of advancement, one easy way of trying to weigh how advanced or developed a country is, is the amount of technology we have developed.”
🚨 BREAKING: Watch the full clip here ➤
