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Shell rewards energy entrepreneurs  

Ngozi Deborah Atalor, a Shell Nigeria LiveWIRE entrepreneur has emerged winner of the pitching competition for young Nigerian entrepreneurs in alternative energy business...

General Manager External Relations of Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Igo Weli, presenting the prize for the best pitch to Mrs. Ngozi Atolor at the Shell LiveWIRE #makethefuture Accelerator event in Port Harcourt, last Friday.

Ngozi Deborah Atalor, a Shell Nigeria LiveWIRE entrepreneur has emerged winner of the pitching competition for young Nigerian entrepreneurs in alternative energy business, as part of the #makethefuture Accelerator event held in Port Harcourt, taking home N1million prize money to boost her business.

This comes barely a month after she won a $5,000 merit category prize in the Shell LiveWIRE top 10 innovators competition, a global contest open to beneficiaries of Shell LiveWIRE, aimed at rewarding shining cases of innovation in businesses supported by the programme.

Judges at the event assessed Atalor’s presentation on how to light up homes in Nigeria, as the most convincing and realisable, to place the young Managing Director of De-Rahbs Energy Services, a firm that specialises in solar panel construction, installation and maintenance ahead of the first and second runners-up, Prince Ledee Basi, and Ibiere Gilbert David respectively. The two runners up received N500,000 each for their efforts.

All three of them are start-ups from the LiveWIRE entrepreneurial programme for Niger Delta youths. They all set up businesses that deliver energy solutions to customers in the Niger Delta and beyond. While Basi’s Basiled Energy Ventures offers renewable energy, safety wears, and sensitisation services on the use of solar products, David’s Ibdav Resources fprovides bio-fuel clean cook stoves.

In addition to the cash prizes, the three entrepreneurs would also receive coaching support from Co-creation Hub, a leading innovation hub in Nigeria.

The General Manager, External Relations, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Igo Weli, said: “There is energy transition as we speak, and things are changing towards cleaner energy.

Nigeria should be part of those solutions that would sustain the globe going forward. What we have done with the #makethefuture campaign Accelerator event here in Port Harcourt, is to provide the platform for young Nigerian energy entrepreneurs to share their ideas on how they can be part of providing power solutions.”

He said the event was remarkable as the first initiative of its kind in energy solution initiative in Nigeria, with the fusion of strengths of telling Shell’s energy story, and the flagship entrepreneurial programme, LiveWIRE, which has produced 6,580 Niger Delta entrepreneurs since 2003.

Chief Executive Officer, All-on Partnership for Energy Access, a firm supporting and investing in energy solutions providers, Dr. Wiebe Boer, and other alternative energy experts led discussion sessions with the young entrepreneurs.

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