The Nigerian Communications Commission, through the Research and Development Department, will continue to support flourishing innovations by creating the right regulatory interventions to fuel sustenance of Startups and tech-hubs in Nigeria, says DR. HENRY NKEMADU.

PROTOCOLS

We are pleased to welcome you to this event, which is one of our commitments to fostering innovations in emerging technologies.

The telecommunications ecosystem is very dynamic and Technology plays a key role in economic growth & sustainability of modern world economy especially with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

In our clime, the need to harness the potentials of these technologies to address our societal challenges and meet our unique needs becomes very important. It is also a national aspiration to spice some of these technologies with local content as a way of improving availability of local manpower, and advancing ICT skills.

It is for this reason that the Commission initiated the NCC Virtual Hackathon 2020, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, to challenge Nigerian Startups, Technology Hubs and Innovation Digital SMEs to come up with adaptable digital solutions for addressing the present and future impacts of Pandemic and Epidemic diseases in Nigeria. The Hackathon was designed to engage the Startups to compete in a healthy manner in such a way as to improve our innovativeness.

Innovators should think laterally about challenges and identify resilient, fit-for-purpose and scalable solutions to real societal problems. Technology has provided solutions to the challenge of weak public systems by providing solutions to most of the challenges in education, health, financial, agric, sectors et cetera.

When we advertised and called for entries to the Hackathon, a total of 298 submissions were received from Startups. After the first and second level preliminary assessments based on the pre-established selection criteria, 56 of the Startups qualified for the final stage of the Evaluation Processes. A very competent team of Evaluators drawn from relevant Departments in the Commission worked assiduously to recognize excellence and select groundbreaking innovative solutions from Startups and Tech Hubs capable of mitigating the challenges posed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and beyond.

Out of the fifty six (56) Solutions from different Startups that participated in the Virtual Hackathon, three (3) winning solutions were identified through a painstaking evaluation process that threw up the overall first, second and third bests Startups with the most promising and adaptable solutions.

The winning Startups will today receive a cash prize but most importantly, the Commission through the Research and Development Department will continue to support flourishing innovations by creating the right regulatory interventions to give a fillip to sustenance of Startups and tech-hubs in Nigeria.

Beyond prize winning, we congratulate every Startup who participated in this competition. We have no doubt that the experience gained will provide all of us with the opportunity to retool and re-engineer our innovative skills for a better future for our businesses and our nation.

On this note, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to the Grant Prize Award Ceremony of NCC Virtual Hackathon 2020.

Thank you very much and God bless.

• Nkemadu, Director, Research And Development at the Nigerian Communications Commission, made these remarks on the occasion of the presentation of grants to winners of Digital Solutions to COVID-19 Hackathon 2020 held on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at the Conference Hall , NCC Head Office Maitama, Abuja.