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By Aanuoluwa Omotosho and Oluwatobi Opusunju
Cloudoria, a web based operating system, developed by Aminu Bakori led the pitches at the just ended Startup Friday, Kaduna Edition. City of the crocodiles, Kaduna is the administrative capital of Kaduna State in the north west of Nigeria.
Cloudoria came top in the highly competitive event featuring over 300 young ICT innovators across north western Nigeria which participated in the event. Cloudoria was adjudged best over applications like ‘Yane’ a social media application and ‘Asusu’ a digital banking system for SMEs inside the main hall of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation.
The judges were drawn from hubs across Nigeria coordinated by the Director of Network of Incubators and Innovators in Nigeria, Mr. Bankole Oloruntoba.
Speakers at the Startup Friday, Kaduna edition
The NITDA team led by the DG of NITDA, Dr Pantami at the Startup Friday, Kaduna edition
The Kaduna Edition of Startup Friday lived up to its growing brand as the startups/developers discovery point with pitches coming from over 300 startups including those of Young Innovators of Nigeria – all aspiring for mentorship, partnership, fund and growth.
The Startup Friday enjoys the strong support of the Office for ICT Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIIE), the startup promoting arm of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Present at the event were the Director General of the NITDA, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami and the Director of the OIIE, Mr. Yinka Adejube.
Pantami affirms the agency’s commitment to bolstering the startup ecosystem through the discovery of young talents and innovators and this underscores its partnership with a startup to organise the Startup Friday.
“That is why we usually organise it once in awhile to make sure we identify our young innovators and entrepreneurs and to see how the agency will support them to realise their dreams.
“After this, there is going to be screening to identify those whose ideas are very important and effective. We will continue to monitor to support and even assist them to continue to build their ideas into a system. We will even sponsor them to international events to compete with other start-ups,” said Pantami.
The NITDA has in the last two years sponsored over 24 startups to international events including the Global Startup Movement at GITEX 2015 and 2016 as part of the initiatives to promote Nigerian startups and cause global exposure to potential investors and partners.
The Kaduna event drew stakeholders and speakers from across the country including the CEO of CoLabs Mr. Sanusi Ismaila, Executive director Coders for Africa, Mr. Femi Daniel, Mr. Geoffrey Iwosu from Vouguepay and CEO of Emerge Tech Africa, Mr. Mohammed Jega. Also in attendance were the Special Assistant (SA) on ICT to the Kano State Government, Maryam Gwadabe Lawan, Founder Startup South West, Mr. Abiola Ogundeko, President of Young Innovators of Nigeria, Mr. Andrew Abu and Ms. Jenifer Chizua of Startpreneurs. Abuja.
