Mary Nnah
The Nourish Nigeria Challenge, known as Nutripitch, has rewarded five entrepreneurs at the 3rd edition of the local elevator pitch competition, organised by Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network.
The event had glitz, glamour and funfair as the top five winners clinched various cash prizes to support their businesses. Although 10 entrepreneurs participated at the pitch competition, five of them were rewarded for their innovative solutions to solve a need in the food systems to end malnutrition in Nigeria.
The event was tagged: ‘Charting a path to engaging and supporting businesses to Act, Invest and Innovate in Operations’, and the 10 entrepreneurs pitched their products and services in a keenly contested competition.
Present at the event were dignitaries, from various walks of life, government officials and other stakeholders from Plateau, Cross Rivers, Kano and Kebbi states.
Babajide Oluwase, CEO of ECOTUTU, a cold storage solution company emerged as the overall winner and went away with the sum of 1 Million cash prize. An elated Oluwase narrated his exploits thus far. “We have identified partners to work with and they best know where they want us to situate the cold storage solutions.
The second and third prizes were N700,000 and N500,000 and this went to Kafilat Adedeji of Ufarmy Organics and Folashade Babatunde, CEO Poisera Nutrition, respectively.
There were also equipment financing awards to two businesses including Fatima Abiola Ogunbunmi of Feetle Hospitality Services and Elizabeth Oladepo, CEO of O7 foods who both got N600, 000 each as equipment grants.
Five other participants in the pitch who did not win cash or equipment grants were admonished to see the competition as a learning curve and strengthen their brands looking at the parameters used for assessing their pitch.
The event also presented an opportunity for participants to understand challenges women face in business and the possible solutions in tackling them.
This was made possible through discussions from a panel session and presentation from two consultants from Cross Rivers and Plateau state, channelling the conversation on how women can be better supported to improve nutrition in their business operations.
The SUN Business Network (SBN) is the private sector branch of the SUN Movement and aims to support businesses in growing the role they play in improving nutrition. It is convened globally, by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the UN World Food Programme
