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With more than 1000 stakeholders at the just ended Genesys Ignite 2018 in eastern part of the country, Nigeria’s entry into the Next Economy is on sure steps, said attendees. Technology has the capacity to help leapfrog our national development but it takes a number of initiatives to make this a reality, especially for a country like Nigeria with so much human potentials. One of such initiative is Genesys Tech Hub by Tenece Professional Services, set up with the aim of developing software talents, as well as incubating and funding start-ups.
To further this objective, Genesys Tech Hub kicked off an annual conference tagged Genesys Ignite which aims to bring together start-ups, academia, software developers, students, policy makers, tech enthusiasts etc. to the beautiful city of Enugu. This year’s event had over 1,000 people in attendance from across Nigeria and abroad. Speakers at the event included a two-time federal minister and former Director General of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Frank Nweke Jnr. who doubled as the chair of the event. The keynote address was delivered by former Corps Marshal and Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka while the CEO of Nextzon, Mac Atasie presented a paper titled how to ‘Create a Knowledge-driven Economy’. Rapper M.I. (Jude Abaga) used his song, “One Naira”, as context for his presentation titled, ‘Collaboration: A Tool for National Development’. The panel session on ‘human capital development and innovation was moderated by the Co-Founder of GoDo.ng, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr.
In the words of the Founder,Genesys Tech Hub, Kingsley Eze, ‘when we first conceived the idea of Genesys Ignite, we wanted to have an annual gathering that truly serves as a convergence of the ecosystem and we are happy that two years on, the impact keeps growing. Our commitment is to contribute to deepening the start-up ecosystem and we are confident of achieving this with the right support and partnerships.’ He added.
Some of the key participants at Genesys Ignite 2018
There were three categories of awards presented, beginning with two out of the 12 start-ups that made it to the final stage and pitched there ideas before a panel of judges. Two start-ups, GreenAge Technologies and LawyerApp received $15,000 each as seed investment and both of them will be incubated at Genesys Tech Hub Enugu.
Similarly, university undergraduate students participated in “Hacktober”, a software development hackathon that sought to build their skills in software engineering, and create a community of young developers in the region. The top three winning universities were Federal University of Technology, Owerri (First prize – N200,000), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Second prize – N100,000), and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (Third prize – N100,000).
Lastly, the winners of the Young Innovators Challenge were University Secondary School, Enugu Campus (first prize), Shalom Science and Technical Academy, Enugu (second prize), and Command Secondary School, Enugu (third prize). The winners received prizes ranging from laptops, desktop computers and free coding training for their schools.
The managing director of Genesys Tech hub, NnamdiAnika is of the opinion that Nigeria and Africa at large stands to gain a lot from an event like GenesysIgnite. According to him, ‘this is not designed to be just another technology event, no, far from it. Our ultimate goal is to create a platform that will lead to new ideas and solutions, which will solve problems and ultimately contribute to National development. This is our hope and we are focused on making this a reality, hence, the investment in the 2018 edition’. He concluded.
One thing is clear;Genesys Ignite has truly joined the league of world-class annual technology events that have come to stay.
