Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has given N20 million in grants to four startups to support their novel digital solutions aimed at curbing insecurity and advancing the Internet of Things (IoT) frontier in the country.
This is in line with NCC’s resolve to encourage and support indigenous innovations.
The four startups are Clearflow system Hub, Aelaus Engineering teams/Hyech Electronics solutions focused on IoT (Internet of Things) for kidnapping and banditry in Nigeria while Kalibotics, CyberNorth Tech concentrated on assistive robotics for effective e-waste management. They will get N5 million.
A statement from the agency said the announcement of the grant was made by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Mr Umar Danbatta, at the prize award ceremony for Virtual NCC IoT Code Camp and Hackathon 2021 held at its headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.
The NCC’s scribe explained that the event was in line with the commission’s Strategic Vision Plan 2021-2025, and the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP).
Represented by NCC’s Director of New Media and Information Security, Mr Alhasan Haru, the EVC noted, “Today’s event aligns with the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) 2020, which underpins the need to promote local production, local services, local innovation, and the use of local materials, in line with the Mandate of the Presidential Executive Order 5 of 2017, on the Promotion of Nigerian Content in Contracts and Science, Engineering and Technology.
“The commission’s Strategic Vision Plan 2021-2025, which captures the need to encourage the development of new technologies and indigenous content, through cutting edge research, to stimulate sustainable economic growth and development in Nigeria is demonstrated through this event.”
“In this year’s Hackathon, our goal is to challenge the creativity and harness the innovative prowess of our young digital-driven population to develop smart Solutions leveraging emerging technologies in addressing the challenges of Banditry, Kidnapping and e-waste management,” he said further.
On his part, NCC Commissioner Technical Services, Mr Ubale Maska, noted that the event has demonstrated the critical role the telecommunications sector plays in addressing Nigeria’s social and environmental problems with innovative solutions.
Mr Maska represented by Head Research and Development NCC, Mr Kelechi Nwankwo reiterated that the commission will continue to support innovations for nation-building.
“To develop innovative Internet Of Things (IoT) solutions for combating kidnapping and banditry and for effective e-waste management in the country. At the close of entry had 54 proposals from 34 organizations but at the end of the two-stage assessment by the panel of judges, Four top startups two from each thematic area of Hackathon selected to pitch. Four final winning digital solutions from indigenous startups,” he said.
Chairman of the Panel of Judges, Dr Uche Uwaje said all the entries are deserving winners.
Representatives from security agencies, telecommunications operators, National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and other Sister agencies lauded the initiatives.
In his remarks, one of the winners, CEO Clearflow system Hub, Mr Francis Idachaba said he will put the grant into judicious use.
NCC organized the first edition of this event last year, where winners went home with prizes worth over N9 million.
