Junior Achievement Nigeria hosts Student Entrepreneurship Competition

The National Company of the Year (NCOY) competition is Junior Achievement Nigeria’s flagship event and the culminating point for the implementation of the JA Company Program and accompanying regional competitions across Nigeria.  It occurs in early October and brings together outstanding student business teams across Nigeria to compete for the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the Africa Company of the Year competition.

The goal of the NCOY is to create a signature showcase for Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN) and the students who benefit from the impact of the Junior Achievement Company Program®, which is a school-based entrepreneurship education curriculum for senior secondary school students. This annual celebration of success allows young people to demonstrate their business acumen and spirit of entrepreneurship in a competitive environment, which will engage business, education and policy leaders as well as the media.

L-R: Niyi Yusuf, JA Nigeria Board Chairman; Simi Nwogugu, JA Nigeria ED; and Patrick Iyamabo, FirstBank CFO

This year, the competition held in Terra Kulture, Lagos on Thursday, October 4th, 2018 with 9 student companies participating in the competition. The student companies who competed are listed below:

1. The Elite Achievers, a student company from Government Secondary School, Tudun Wada, who produced biogas made from cow dung and a fruits dryer powered by solar energy.
2. The Brain Max, a student company from Government Girls Secondary School, Abaji, Abuja. They created an online market where they sold farm produce from local farmers directly to customers. They also developed an app which is currently live on the Google Play Store – The Real Farmers Market (RFM)
3. Brave Girls Company, a student company from Rosary College, Nise, who designed a local water ring boiler that consumes less power to boil water.
4. Stecomms, a student company from Stella Maris College, Port-Harcourt,who developed a community-based radio transmitter.
5. Inventive Explorers, a student company from Caro Favored Schools, Ajegunle, who produced a rechargeable handheld LED traffic light for road wardens
6. Voltage JAC, a student company from Day Waterman College, who produced a flash drive + lighting phone charger.
7. EBSUTECH POWER LTD, a student company from Ebonyi State University (EBSU) Staff School Abakiliki, who produced an equipment that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy (manual phone charger).
8. The Elite Enterprise, a student company from Osogbo Government High School who produced biogas made from cow dung.
9. Sharon Glory Ventures, the student company of Sharon Rose College, Saki who designed a water level indicator.

L-R: Simi Nwogugu, ED Junior Achievement Nigeria, Paul Okeugo, Olutosin Oni, Fatima Aliko-Dangote, Moyosore Olisa, Akintunde Oyebode, & Ijeoma Agboti-Obatoyinbo

The student companies were judged by Olutosin Oni, Principal at EchoVC Partners; Ijeoma Agboti-Obatoyinbo, MD/CEO of FBNQuest Funds; Akintunde Oyebode, CEO, Lagos State Employment Trust Funds; Fatima Aliko- Dangote,Executive Director, Commercial, NASCON Allied Industries; Paul Okeugo, CO-Founder & COO, Chocolate City Group; and Moyosore Olisa, Head, Alumni Engagement, Tony Elumelu Foundation. In addition to the highly esteemed judges, also in attendance were Patrick Iyamabo, the Chief Financial Officer of FirstBank Nigeria who gave the keynote address, as well as Nneotaobase Egbeof Channels TV who compered the event.

Each student company presented their products and services to the judges and audience following a time for the product demos. Each student company had a booth where they displayed their products and judges had the opportunity to go round and see up-close, how each product/service worked. At the end of the day, three student companies copped all prizes.

Coming in third place, was Sharon Glory Ventures, a student company from Sharon Rose College Saki, Oyo who produced a water level indicator to enable homeowners to determine the level of water in their tanks. They also received the award for the Most Innovative Product.

Student Company executives at the Booth for Product Inspection

In Second place were the girls of Brain Max Student Company from Government Girls Secondary School, Abaji, Abuja who designed a website and software application for connecting local produce farmers directly to their customers; they also won the award for the best Corporate Social Responsibility project. For their CSR project, they visited Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, assigned members of the camp into various economic cooperative groups based on skill sets and then provided entrepreneurship/financial literacy training to each group.  They also placed approved cooperatives with viable plans on the “Displaced Finance Platform” for crowdfunding and they secured start-up funds for them, provided the much needed mentoring to their businesses in the areas of access to the market, bookkeeping, and marketing.  Through this, they were able to raise the household monthly income of over 260 IDPs in Durumi IDP Camp from zero to N30, 000. They also used 10% of their profit to provide foodstuff and sanitary materials for the IDPs.

The Student Company executives at their booth for a service inspection

And #NCOY2018 grand winners were the Inventive Explorers, a student company from Caro Favored College, Ajegunle, who produced rechargeable hand-held LED Traffic Lights to ease congestion in their locality and also eliminate the use of hands or red flags by traffic wardens. They will go on to represent Nigeria in the JA Africa Company of the Year competition taking place in Ghana this December.

The Elite Achievers Student Company with their product, A biogas made from Cow Dung

We thank all our guests for making time out to be a part of the event; our esteemed judges, for judging each student company objectively; our media partners (Bellanaija, PulseNG, Businessday, and ChannelsTV), and #NCOY2018in-kind sponsors (Wilson’s Juice Co) for contributing to the success of #NCOY2018.

The student company executives at their booth for product inspection

The Brave Girls Student Company with their local Water Ring Boiler

We also recognize and thank the Citi Foundation for sponsoring the JA Company Program in Lagos and Abuja thereby giving both the first and second place winners an opportunity to compete (and win). To ACT Foundation, for sponsoring the JA Company Program and regional competitions in Osun and Oyo States, we say a big THANK YOU! We’re sure the students of Sharon Rose College, Saki did you proud by coming in third place.

EBSUTECH Student Company pose with manual charger as judge inspects the product

See more photos below

Voltage JAC Student Company with their product, a 3 in 1 Portable Flash Drive

Stecomms Student Company with the local radio transmitter

FirstBank CFO, Patrick Iyamabo giving a Keynote Speech during the event

Nneotaobase Egbe of Channels TV addressing guests during the event

JAN ED, Simi Nwogugu, addressing guests before the presentation of awards to outstanding student companies

Government Girls Secondary School students receiving the award for Second position & Best CSR Project

Sharon Glory College receiving the award for the third place & Most Innovative Product

Some of our guests at the event

Some of our guests at the event

Some of our guests at the event