Kwari E-Market, a Kano-based digital commerce platform, has emerged winner of the maiden Builders Festival organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), winning the grand prize of N3 million.
VarsityScape, a Lagos-based educational technology startup, came second with N2.5 million, while Chekkit, a platform that combats counterfeit products, emerged third with N2 million.
The awards were presented on Thursday at the closing ceremony of the Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition (DNICE) in Abuja, held under the theme: “Driving Nigeria’s Digital Future: Secure, Intelligent and Inclusive Systems”.
Kwari E-Market, founded in 2022 by Kassim Muhammad Atiku, is an e-commerce and technology platform designed to modernise Kantin Kwari Market in Kano, one of West Africa’s largest textile and commercial hubs.
VarsityScape operates an AI-powered online academy system that enables experts, instructors and institutions to establish digital academies and deliver cohort-based learning programmes.
Chekkit helps consumers identify and avoid counterfeit products while enabling consumer goods and pharmaceutical companies to authenticate their products and boost sales.
About 30 startups participated in the Builders Festival, selected from more than 1,388 applications, with the other participating startups receiving N150,000 each.
The festival was designed to connect startups with investors, potential customers and corporate organisations seeking technology-driven solutions to business and societal challenges.
NITDA’s Director of Special Duties, Dr Aristotle Onumo, said the initiative adopted a problem-driven approach by sourcing challenges from corporate organisations and inviting startups to develop solutions.
Onumo said the approach was designed to move beyond the conventional model in which startups independently develop ideas without first establishing market demand.
“We didn’t allow the startups themselves to begin to think about a problem. We created a platform to assemble and collect all the problems from the corporates.
“We also created a platform for startups to apply to provide solutions to those problems and another for investors willing to support the young businesses,” he said.
Onumo said NITDA’s vision was to build an investment pipeline of no fewer than N3 billion for the participating startups.
