Enterprise Challenge

Keturah Ovio- Onoweya, a first place winner on the competition, is a software engineer who has founded Qeturah.com, an eCommerce company fostering sustainability of people, culture and economy in the African creative space. She was also a part of the founding team of two successful Malaysian start-ups - BuzzElement and Gogoet.my

Asides winning the financial grant worth N2million, Keturah will receive fully-funded scholarships to attend a five-day entrepreneurship foundation course at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in South Africa plus a mentoring session in London with world-renowned entrepreneur and Founder and Chairman of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson

Sophia Ike-Onu also a first place winner on the competition is an architect who has founded The5kshop.com, which is the primary shopping destination for quality fashion pieces priced below 5,000 Naira. Her foray into business extends beyond The5kshop into other interests in food services, real estate and transportation.

 In addition to winning the financial grant worth N2million, Sophia will receive fully-funded scholarships to attend a five-day entrepreneurship foundation course at the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in South Africa plus a mentoring session in London with world-renowned entrepreneur and Founder and Chairman of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson.

Obi Adiuku-Brown, the second place winner in the competition is an engineer who founded Insight Africa. Obi uses technology to create unique and innovative products for the education sector with the aim of improving the landscape for academic research, innovation, and human performance specifically in areas of STEM subject areas.

As the winner of the Samsung prize, Obi gets the opportunity to explore potential areas for partnership and collaboration with the Electronic giant. He also wins a business development trip to Samsung City -Samsung Headquarters in South Korea in addition to the N1m financial grant received.

Eseoghene Odiete is an award-winning young female fashion entrepreneur.  She is the brain behind Hesey Designs, an African inspired accessories label. She designed the sneakers Richard Branson CEO of Virgin Atlantic wore for the launch of the Virgin Atlantic uniform recently in London.

Starting with just N10,000, after graduating from Covenant University with bachelor’s degree in Mass communication in 2011, Ese has been able to further grow the business.  Her “can do” spirit and absolute tenacity has seen her emerge as one of the winners of the Google’s Africa Connect awards. She has shared the stage with world celebrated personalities, Richard Branson and Vivienne Westwood amongst others, following her British council ‘Enterprise Challenge’ win which gave an opportunity to have a special mentoring session with Sir Richard Branson and the opportunity to attend the Branson centre of entrepreneurship.

Ese was also a nominated for the Future awards Tony Elumelu prize in Business and recognised as one of the top 40 under 40 Nigerian entrepreneurs by bizwatchng. Her areas of interest go beyond entrepreneurship. She is a social evangelist with a passion for people and women empowerment.  

Ese has been privileged to inspire other young people through various speaking opportunities like the British council ‘mind the gap’ conference, Google Africa summit in the University of Nairobi, 'Girls inspire Girls' show, Unilag, just to mention a few.

She is also a skills development volunteer of Slum to school Africa where she trains young underprivileged people on different crafts to become economically empowered. 

Nasir Yammama studied for a master’s degree in creative technology at the Middlesex University in London. Nasir’s ability to think outside the box and develop digital solutions to everyday problems has earned him the respect of his peers and prizes and various international competitions (e.g. Oracles Thinkquest, Digital Peers International's Digites etc.)

What struck us about Nasir was that unlike a lot of young people his age, he is actively thinking about solutions to Nigeria’s current problems and he has taken a different perspective to what he believes these solutions might be.

At the moment the Nigeria agricultural sector is one of the most underfunded with the greatest potential to boost the country’s economy. In terms of our question, Nasir proved to us that not only is he aware of the current issues, his proposed product seeks to plug into and piggyback on the foundation of recently launched government initiatives.

This product is a knowledge sharing mobile application which seeks to ensure that Nigerian farmers make informed decisions about their business based on what is available to them in their local environments, for example the farmers will receive information about the best soil types to use for their various agricultural products, weather and its effect on crops etc.

This product is very much in the developmental stages, but we are excited to embark on this journey with Nasir. He proved to us during his presentation and board interview that he has done his research and we look forward to what the future brings and will support him in any way we can.