Wennovation Hub Hosts Apps4Africa 2012 Event: ” Business Challenge” in LAGOS

The management of Wennovation Hub is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the Apps4Africa 2012 Event at the Wennovation Hub on December 7, 2012 as the designated Local Partner for the series of events across regional centers across the continent. The event , "Business Challenge" is focused on transforming the technological and creative energy of Application Developers in Africa into viable business. This goal being in line with Wennovation Hub's focus as the premier Start-Up Accelerator in West Africa, is bringing together these worthy partners.

Business Challenge builds on the success of the two previous Apps4Africa competitions.  In 2010, Apps4Africa focused on Civic Challenge and spurred developers to find innovative technology solutions to everyday problems on issues ranging from transparency and governance to health and education.  The winning app – iCow – was developed in Kenya and enables farmers to better manage the breeding periods of their cows, helping increase yields.  Regional winners of the 2011 Apps4africa competition on Climate Challenges in Africa came from Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and Botswana and produced apps that promote food security, health, sustainable agricultural practices, and disease monitoring. 

Apps4Africa 2012 competition partners include TED, The Unreasonable Institute, iHub, IDEO, and LIONS@AFRICA, a public-private alliance led by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnership that fosters public-private partnerships promoting technology and innovation in Africa. Appfrica International has renewed its partnership with Senegalese Born Marieme Jamme, CEO of Spotone Global Solutions to bring again engaged, localized and energized brainstorming sessions across Africa.

Coders and Developers are welcomed to sign up for the event at EventDiaries

Idris Bello, the Wennovation Hub director at signing indicated that "the alignment between Wennovation Hub's first foray into encouraging Apps Development with the first round of WennoCamp 2011 that featured companies like Valleybits, Opacus Technologies and MobiQube now with vibrant products in the market is a remarkable testimony to the synergy in this partnership". 

 

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Wennovation Hub is 1 of 11 Finalists at the Ashoka/SAP Power of Change Competition. We hope you're rooting for us!

Wennovation Emerge as SAP/Ashoka Global Competition Finalist: VOTE NOW

The “Wennovation Hub Initiative” has been selected as a finalist in the SAP/Ashoka 'The Power of Small Competition'. The flagship creation of US-Nigerian business incubator ‘LoftyInc’, the Wennovation Hub was one of 11 finalists selected from more than 370 innovations submitted globally, tackling various issues around innovation and entrepreneurship. To emerge winner, friends of Wennovation Hub are invited to VOTE at this LINK. 

As a competition finalist, the Wennovation Hub is "being honored for outstanding demonstration of innovation, social impact, and sustainability" according to a Press Release by the Ashoka Changemaker organizers. 

The Wennovation Hub has been invited to participate in the SAPPHIRE NOW event organized by SAP in Madrid from November 13-16, 2012.  Represented by its Program Director, Idris Bello,the Hub will showcase the power of its innovative model for powering start-ups in Frontier Markets. This model of "Product to Commercialization" has yielded six portfolio companies in the past year, three of which were funded by outside investors, and four of which are in full operations today.

The four finalists with the highest number of online votes will be announced as winners at the SAPPHIRE NOW event in Madrid. Wennovation supporters, friends, and well-wishers across the globe are invited and urged to VOTE for the platform at: 

 http://www.changemakers.com/powerofsmall

Just click on the check mark icon next to our entry, and LOG-IN with your Facebook Account to have your votes recorded. 

Your vote for 'taking the Wennovation dream to the next level' will be appreciated!

OTGPlaya Secures Commercial Order, MobiQube is Anzisha Prize Finalist

OTGPlaya Entity LLC, a Wennovation Hub company secured its first sizable commercial order by virtue of an order from a major supplier of educational equipment to Texas school districts this past week. OTGPlaya initial supply will be fulfilled within thirty days, and marks a significant milestone in the life of the start-up that delivered the first prototype of its scalable platform in July. OTGPlaya was designated by the Texas Buy Board contractor as a major equipment supplier by virtue of this order, and will service the multi-year contract to deliver OTGPlaya devices to school districts across the State of Texas.

OTGPlaya Entity LLC is a technology development company with a proprietary platform (combination of hardware and software) that delivers OTGPlaya licensed content to entertainment lovers and students alike utilizing its real-estate conserving and bandwidth efficient equipment and seamless software/applications. Educational institutions can particularly leverage the OTGPlaya Kiosk to aggregate and deliver content via synced applications to OTGPlaya low-cost but powerful Genie tablet, that seeks to revolutionize the way students learn in the classroom.  Through its subsidiary in Nigeria, Prime CoHall Limited, OTGPlaya plans to deploy digital kiosks across Lagos state to deliver multimedia content to entertainment lovers currently handicapped by lack of access to reliable broadband connection, the premium cost of obtaining scarcely efficient access and the unreliability of the current ubiquitous DVD medium.

OTGPlaya CEO, Modupe Ajibola, did not not mince words in his email to his team that "the fulfillment of this first order, will mark the first step towards revolutionizing content is delivered in challenging environments; be it our schools or in emerging markets".

MobiQube Emerge Finalists

In related news,  the Wennovation Hub is pleased to announce that that 20-yr old Mahmood Oyewo, a co-founder of MobiQube Limited another Wennovation Hub company is one of 13 anzishaprize finalists out of a pool of 270 entries. MobiQube's flagship product is released this summer is RubiQube, an mobile app that aggregates geographic relevant applications for users. Mahmood will be heading to South Africa later in the week in an attempt to bring his incredible innovation to a continent badly in need of young innovators and entrepreneurs. Anzisha Prize is a Mastercard Foundation/Africa Leadership Academy backed prize for young innovators on the continent.

Wennovation Hub CEO Wins Mentorship Award

The Mentorship Award was bestowed on the Managing Partner of LoftyInc and CEO of the Wennovation Hub,  Wole Odetayo by one of Africa's largest private philanthropic organizations: the  Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) on Saturday, August 11 2012.  

Mr Tony Elumelu, founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and Chairman of Heirs Holdings (left) and Mr Mike Onolememen, Minister of Works (right), congratulating Wole Odetayo, CEO of Wennovation Hub and winner of the foundation’s Chief Ebitimi Banigo Award for Mentorship 2012 during TEF’s leadership development programme in Lagos, on Saturday.

The Award is the Chief Ebitimi Banigo Award for Mentorship. It's a fallout of LoftyInc/Wennovation Hub's current participation in their sponsored African Market Internship Program 2012 in which TEF seconded LBS-MBA student to us and partly, as a result of our disruptive "Lofty" initiatives in the tech space in Nigeria.

The Executive Partner of LoftyInc, Michael Oluwagbemi in a message to the team declared that, "we cannot have an effective ground team without a leader and that credit belongs to  Wole. I am incredibly proud of what we've been able to achieve this past year and a half together, and as I always in various forms.."we're just getting started"."

Indeed, the Wennovation Hub, Lagos Angel Network and very soon the Wennovation Hunt as well as the soon to be launched Wennovation Virtual Incubation Environment are all testimonies to the hard work of the Wennovation Team. So also are those dozen or so start-up companies the ecosystem supports between Nigeria, USA and Ghana. 

Wennovation Hub is a Lagos based Start-Up Accelerator focused on the ECOWAS market and the technology enabled sector(s). It is an initiative of the Africa Leadership Forum (the partner) and LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited (the operator). It provides access to space, broadband, mentors and funders through its hybrid eco-system: leveraging non-profit and for-profit philosophies. Focused on accelerating "wennopreneurs" from ideas to funding/commercialization, the pioneer class of Wennovation Hub members of four companies have obtained up to $500,000 in investor commitment with over 80% coming from local investors. More than nine start-ups are currently members of the Wennovation Hub ecosystem and to varying degrees the portfolio of the operator company. 

Wennovation Hub Director Headlines Calabar Event as Futaa Joins Ecosystem

The Wennovation Hub Program Director- Idris Bello is one of the invited guest speakers to headline the 2012 Career Day event hosted by The Bridge Leadership Foundation in Calabar, Cross Rivers State Nigeria to hold Wednesday, July 11th, 2012 at the Cultural Centre, Calabar, Cross Rivers State, Nigeria. 

The theme for this year is ‘Talent, Leadership & Entrepreneurship’.

According to The Bridge, "The Career Day seeks to inspire and empower young people in choosing the right career paths and making informed decisions. The aim of the event is to provide a platform for young Nigerians and graduates who are; seeking to enter the job market, at the start of their career or aspiring to be entrepreneurs, to learn from accomplished entrepreneurs and professionals (home and abroad) that have made major achievements in different sectors in the society."

Idris Bello hopes to use the event to inspire young people to solve critical problems surrounding them using technology. Building on his working within the Wennovation Hub that has led to the incubation of over a dozen start-ups and raising over half a million dollars mostly from local investors for them in the past year, Idris hopes the ongoing technology revolution among young people is sustained.

In like vein, Futaa.com Nigeria have joined the Wennovation Hub as an active space user of the ecosystem. Coined from futaa, a common local slung for football in Kenya, futaa.com is a new portal that intends to keep it local for African football in providing today’s and tomorrows news today, if possible. Started in Kenya, it has since expanded into Uganda and now Nigeria.With an intended 30 plus articles a day on the local news, leagues, Kenyan players in the region and abroad and news affecting the country Africa wide, futaa.com intends to drop it to you in the soonest time possible be it at your desk or on your mobile.

Wennovation: Building Regional Bridges

April 2012 was regional integration month at the Wennovation Hub, as co-initiator Michael Oluwagbemi took to the road in Yaounde and Accra, building bridges with sister incubators in the West-Central Africa region. The burgeoning innovation incubation complex in the sub-continent have a lot to learn from cooperative initiatives aimed at sharing competencies, leaning on lessons learned across geographies and providing cross-platform access to participants within a network of linked incubators.

Michael Oluwagbemi (Far Left) with MEST Team

The first port of call was Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), an organization that "provides training and mentoring for aspiring African software entrepreneurs with the goal of creating wealth and jobs locally in Africa.". MEST runs a model incubator in Accra linked to its training school by quite an elegant swing bridge over a neighborhood ravine, that models risk taking and opportunity for its attendees. The Wennovation Hub co-founder, Michael Oluwagbemi was welcomed by Michael Szymanski and Amma Baffoe. 

Opportunity meets Risk..on the MEST Bridge!

At the end of meeting with MEST incubator leadership, key areas of potential cooperation were discussed and a regional team to pursue these initiatives will be consulting over the next few months to make them a reality. The trip to Accra followed a similar undertaking to burgeoning incubator last November to Accra where InnoHub led by vintage entrepreneur -Nelson Amo focused on core ICT competence building in schools across Ghana and both teams explored potential fronts in cooperative partnership. 

The trip to Ghana was followed by similar undertaking to Cameroon, where in Yaounde the Harambe Alliance continues to wax strong via the work of  Harambe Cameroon (HC) led by Ms. Olivia Mukam. In a meeting with HC's organization executives at Yaounde on 23rd April 2012 at Harambe's office, the visiting Wennovation Hub co-founder Michael Oluwagbemi discussed key lessons learned from the Wennovation experience in Nigeria and environ. The meeting was a repeat and follow-up to a previous visit, and integrating the vision for the sub-continent between Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon was extensively discussed and agreed to in principle.

Wennovation meets Harambe

Idris Bello, the Wennovation Hub's program director stresses the importance of "building bridges" to achieve the high impact goals of the organization. To read more about Idris' vision for the Wennovation Hub, read his recent interview with Bella Naija and Y! Magazine -currently on the newsstands.

Also, read MobiQube Nigeria Limited CEO- Mukhtar Oyewo's recent interview with CP Africa; this hot new start-up is a major driver off the Wennovation Platform. Watch this space.

Wennovation Program Director Takes to the Road

Like a perennial phenomena of time, the Wennovation Hub again took again to the road in the month of March across the globe at conferences, seminars and talk-shops espousing its successes since the last road tour.

It was barely a year after Wennovation Hub director, Idris Bello - took the gospel of Wennopreneurship to the Globe in 2011, and resounding success stories of 85 entrepreneurs, 6 incubated business and 4 operating enterprises are solid benchmarks of effective start-up incubation.

The road trip started on Saturday, March 3,when Idris Bello headed to Cape Town, South Africa. with  the Harambe Alliance Convivium,  a dinner in Cape Town  on Sunday with a cross-section of young African entrepreneurs and representatives of leading South African groups in the public and private sector for the purpose of exploring the nexus between the development of the continent and youth entrepreneurship.

A few weeks later Idris was at Istanbul, Turkey where he spent three days as an invited speaker and MIT Fellow at the 2012 MIT Global Startup Conference to explore the theme Directions for Innovation. Over three days, the conference discussed new technological directions, global market directions and strategic directions for entrepreneurs, investors, and supporting organizations.

Idris Bello, Wennovation Hub Director delivers his treatise at Turkey

Idris Featured on a Panel Discussing Entrepreneurial Expressions

The last few days of the month and early April were rounded off at the Clinton Global Initiative University at Washington DC with President Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Jon Stewart and about 1000 students from around the world who are committed to action in making a positive impact on the world. 

According to Idris Bello, for the month of March while on  the road, "‘ Talent is universal, opportunity is not’, hence it is our responsibility to connect those with talent to opportunities wherever we find it."

In line with this promise, the Wennovation Hub for the next year is strategically focused on three core areas:

• Capacity Building with the integration of Business Development Fellows and Launch of the Wennopreneurs in Residence Programs

• Build Linkages across the region by linking with other hubs/incubators across Africa

• Focus Portfolio Companies within the ecosystem on Funding, Operation & Impact

Idris Bello Hanging with the Prez @ DC

Sign up for $75000 Anzisha Prize Lagos Information Summit

THE 2012 ANZISHA PRIZE TOUR IS COMING TO NIGERIA!

The Anzisha Prize is the premier award for African leaders aged 15-20 who have developed and implemented innovative solutions to challenges facing their communities.

The Prize recognizes young people whose passion for Africa drives them to design and develop projects that transform their communities and the continent. The Anzisha Prize is an initiative of the African Leadership Academy in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

Want to learn more?  Attend an Anzisha Prize Tour information session in Lagos


Date: Thursday March 15th, 2012 (10am and 1pm) or Saturday, March 17, 2012 (11am and 2pm)

Where: Wennovation Hub, Entrepreneurship Development Center, Plot C Obasa Road off Oba-Akran Avenue (behind AP filling station), Ikeja Lagos State.


RSVP
TO RSVP, send your name, age, gender, session preferred, phone number (if any) and email address before March 10.

Via Email: prize@anzishaprize.org
Via SMS: 0808 844 4242

Or simply fill the form here  Lagos Summit Form

Be sure to indicate session time of interest. Only invited summit delegates will be contacted, but every eligible student can apply for the Prize (www.anzishaprize.org)

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED

www.wennovationhub.com
facebook.com/wennovationhub
http://twitter.com/#!/wennovation

To help organize an info session in your city, email ideaslab@loftyincltd.biz

Wennovation Hub Partners with Africa Leadership Academy to Launch Anzisha Prize in Nigeria

The Wennovation Hub (www.wennovationhub.com) has just entered into a partnership with the African Leadership Academy Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership (with a multi-year grant from a leading global foundation - The MasterCard Foundation) towards partnering to launch the Anzisha Prize Tour in Nigeria ( http://www.anzishaprize.org/

The Anzisha Prize is the premier award for Africa's young entrepreneurial leaders ages 15-20. Starting in March we will be holding summits to promote the prize and get youth in Africa excited about entrepreneurship. The Partnership was agreed to in a Memorandum of Understanding executed on February 24, 2012. 

According to the Program Director of the Wennovation Hub: Idris Bello, the Wennovation Hub "plan to hold two information summits in Lagos at the Wennovation Hub on March 17. The goal is to have a diverse audience of about 100 representatives of secondary schools, universities, and youth organizations (in the target age range) attend, and be enlightened about the process, and who can then act as ambassadors for the competition and get their friends and colleagues to register."

The Wennovation Hub operational team acknowledges the strategic synergy between the Anzisha Prize and the strategic objectives of the hub going forward to develop a robust pipeline of young entrepreneurs that will eventually feed the hub's incubation platform. The Africa Innovation Prize that focuses more specifically on higher education students further enriches this objective and is also set launch later this year by the Wennovation Hub in Nigeria.

ABOUT THE ANZISHA PRIZE:

The Anzisha Prize seeks to award young innovators who have developed and implemented innovative solutions to challenges facing their communities. Fifteen finalists from across Africa will win an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa to be a part of a week-long entrepreneurship workshop and conference at the African Leadership Academy campus on the outskirts of Johannesburg.  The grand prize winners, selected from these finalists, will share prizes worth $75,000 USD. The Wennovation Hub will also provide mentorship and support to selected Anzisha Prize finalist(s) based in Lagos

ELIGIBILITY:

·  Applicants must be between the ages of 15 and 20.

· Innovations in all fields (science and technology, civil society, arts and culture, sports, etc.) will be considered by the Prize Committee.

· Some projects are carried out by small groups or teams that see themselves as equal. Should this be the case with your project, the primary initiator who assembled the project team should apply for the prize on behalf of the group. Should the group be named a finalist, only the primary initiator of the winning group will attend the workshop in South Africa, though winnings may be shared amongst the group.

Email: prize@anzishaprize.org
Call:    +27 11 699 3000 

Nigeria: +234-805-951-7814

Download application form (500KB)

http://www.anzishaprize.org/export/sites/ala-prize/downloads/AnzishaPrize_Application_Form.doc

Wennopreneurs Go to Funding...!

The Wennovation Hub is pleased to announce the first funding window opportunity for Wennopreneurs within the Wennovation Eco-System. On Friday, February 17 2012- the top Wennovation Hub Companies, will have an opportunity to pitch their products, showcase working "demos" and the market opportunity to top investors under the auspices of a funding initiative conceived with the Tony Elumelu Foundation & Heirs Holdings Limited.

The private closed-door "Investors Speed Dating Event" is the first of a series of events designed to put start-up entrepreneurs in contact with top-notch potential funders, and marks the last phase in the series of successive milestones in the first Wennovation Cycle that began in June 2011.

Four Wennovation Portfolio companies from both the WennoCamp and Wennovation Platform tracks will be showcased. These are:

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is an Africa-based and African-funded not-for-profit institution dedicated to the promotion and celebration of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship across Africa.

Heirs Holdings is an African investment company focusing on principal investments in a variety of sectors across Africa. Our investment universe extends from start-up ventures to established high growth companies.

The Wennovation Hub as a true hub for start-up business development located in Ikeja, Lagos with a focus on synthesizing high impact start-up growth, facilitation and development in West Africa. It is operated by LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited.