Jessica Yahaya, an entrepreneur with passion for agricultural produce preservation was reduced to tears-of-joy as she joined Daniel Isa, Emmanuel Ugwueke, Emmanuel Okena and Godwin Benson as five top winners in the five-week Microsoft Mobile Devices and Services (MMDS) “From Passion to Empire” campaign.
The winners afterwards smiled home with N3.5miilion each and will be mentored by the likes of Nigerian top beauty entrepreneur, Tara Fela-Durotoye, entertainment mogul, the founder and CEO of Chocolate City, AuduMaikori and techpreneur and founding partner of leading careers and jobs website, Jobberman, Opeyemi Awoyemi.
Aside that, they have won themselves direct entry to Pan African University programme to be sponsored by MMDS too.
The campaign which commenced on February 16 ended on March 31, 2015 recorded over 4,000 entries while 15 were selected for the last pitching duel.
According to Mr. Joseph Umunakwe, managing director, Microsoft Mobile Devices and Services, inspiration for the “Passion to Empire” campaign was drawn from the drives of Bill Gates, the Microsoft Founder, who defiled all odds to establish the company, today recognized as the top software and hardware brand around the globe.
“The initiative” Umunakwe, said, “targeted at entrepreneurs to test the strength of their ideas, sharpen their skills and expand their frontiers as they go through a period of intensive business coaching with the aim to ultimately, establish their businesses”.
“Like I said during a programme, not long time ago, the reason our entrepreneurs fail is largely for lack of the bridge between passion and empire. We at Microsoft have seen it as a challenge and are willing to help out to ensure these noble ideas are ultimately utilized for the society’s growth”.
He added that the first and second runners up will be given opportunity to participate in the mentorship programme, because they have innovative acumen needful to the society.
Speaking on the sideline of the Lumia devices that spurred the campaign, Olumide Balogun, senior product manager, Microsoft Mobile Devices and Services, West and Central Africa, said that the Lumia 535 Dual SIM offers five great integrated Microsoft experiences, a wide-angle 5 megapixel front facing camera, and a spacious 5 inch display protected with Gorilla Glass 3 which makes it a perfect device for entrepreneurs who want to be able to do more on the go.
Expressing delight over the opportunity, Jessica Yahaya, said that while growing up as a child in Kaduna, she was never satisfied that her family records losses each year after fruitful farming, largely for lack of proper preservation mechanism.
She vowed to ensure that both her family, community and the nation, benefit from her technological program that will ensure proper farm products preservation.
On his part, Emmanuel Ugwueke whose team, in the last five years, have been manually engraving and branding companies’ names and logos on tin covers and packs, N3.5million is a major boost to their operations and will aid in transmission from manual to automated process.
Ugwueke said, “We have companies from Nassarawa, Benue, Kogi and others, who are willing to give us business, but we are limited due to the manual process of our operations. So, when I heard about the Microsoft Devices campaign, I reluctantly applied and they email me be in Lagos for the competition. Today, a new chapter has been opened to us.
“We have the idea that what we can produce will even discourage companies from travelling abroad for their packaging branding and engraving. Apart from that, it will stop capital flight and boast job creation in Nigeria. We are thankful to Microsoft and the judges who saw sense in what we are doing”.
On his part, Godwin Benson, hopes to transform the face of tutorial in Nigeria, adding that with a mobile application, they will connect parents and students to their choice tutors from any part of the country.
He said that the educational subsector has been growing by 17% in Nigeria and will even reach over 20% by year 2020.
According him, the application is to reduce the stress, time wastages and other inhibiting factors faced in the Nigerian tutorial and non-tutorial circle.
However, Emmanuel Okena, found pleasure in tackling challenges in the waste management and disposal in the country.
Using Lagos State as the model, he said that currently, residents are faced with issues such as a disconnect from the waste managers and improper billing and payment systems.
To him, it’s time the country removed the bottlenecks and move the secure to another level using technology.
Other winners also showcased creative ways to curbing Nigeria’s multi-faceted challenges.
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