Eight Renewable Energy Start-ups Receive Free Grant
Zeniat Abubakar, Abuja
Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre, NCIC with support from All On Hub, has announce winners of the 2022 edition of their annual ideation incubation program for early-stage renewable energy entrepreneurs.
They are, Retile, Power box Energy Systems, Danwawo Group LTD, Energy Assured, Solaris GreenTech Hub, Nutriden Agriculture Concept, Letcold Nigeria LTD, Swift Tranzact.
The demo day event, which took place in Lagos was organised by NCIC with the support of All On via its technical support facility, the Rockefeller Foundation funded All On Hub.
The Rockefeller Foundation and All On, is a Nigerian off-grid energy impact investment company funded by Shell.
The event marked the completion of the Embryo Incubation programme, which gives participants the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a seasoned panel of industry experts for a chance to receive an equity-free grant of ten thousand US Dollars.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer, of NCIC Mr. Bankole Oloruntoba reiterated the organization’s commitment to the growth of renewable energy start-ups in Nigeria.
He reflected on the journey of the Embryo Incubation Program noting that a total of fifty ideation stage businesses have so far gone through the program with sixteen receiving a total of one hundred sixty-thousand US Dollars in equity-free grant funding.
Bankole charged the entrepreneurs to remain focused and resources available to them through the NCIC network to accelerate their businesses drawing inspiration from notable Alumni to the previous cohorts.
The third cohort of the incubation programme, which started in May 2022, was designed to close Nigeria’s energy access gap by building a pipeline of early-stage renewable energy enterprises with the potential to scale.
The training curriculum covered a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects including strategy and planning, product development, regulatory environment, marketing, finance, and fund-raising.
This year, the programme received two hundred and ninety applications from which eighteen ventures were shortlisted and completed the six-month incubation programme conducted by the NCIC.
In her address, All On Chief Executive Officer, Caroline Eboumbou commended the participants for their dedication for supporting the clean energy transition with their bold ideas.
“The shared vision of All On and NCIC has been to groom early-stage clean energy entrepreneurs, providing them with the key ingredients to enable their dreams of impacting unserved communities a reality.” She explained.
One of the female recipients of the ten thousand US Dollars grant, Zainab Abdulwaheed, co-founder of LetCold, thanked All On and NCIC for the opportunity.
“My business has benefited from my participation in the incubation program over the last six months, and we have improved our understanding of how a business operates,” she added.
