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ARM offers DAAYTA winner N12m seed funding, others

The 2019 DAAYTA programme through ARM has offered its first place winner, Murtala Sani of WeSabi, ₦N12 million as seed funding...

Founder, WeSabi, Murtala Sani (left), and Chief Executive Officer, ARM Holding Company, Ms. Jumoke Ogundare at the Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) organized by Asset & Resource Management Holding Company Limited (ARM) in Lagos.

The 2019 DAAYTA programme through ARM has offered its first place winner, Murtala Sani of WeSabi, ₦N12 million as seed funding to encourage and empower techpreneurs.

The Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) by Asset & Resource Management Holding Company Limited (ARM) is part of the company’s efforts to make meaningful socio-economic impact in their immediate environment and the nation at large.

Murtala Sani who emerged winner among the 6 finalists received ₦N12 million to be disbursed over one year to develop his business plan, complete a 5-month entrepreneurial education at the Pan Atlantic University’s Enterprise Development Centre, in Lagos, Nigeria; and also to receive support for development of his venture, WeSabi, through an accelerator programme by a reputable entrepreneurial hub in Lagos, Nigeria.

According to Sani, the urge to make a system better drove him to start WeSabi, an initiative created to help households find reliable and pre-screened artisans in their neighbourhood through a website, mobile app and a USSD platform. It’s goal being to build Africa’s marketplace for the blue-collar sector.

Managing Director, ARM Academy, Uche Azubuike, said “We are happy that this huge part of our firm’s corporate social responsibility has yet again yielded fruits by empowering a good start-up business which will have a positive impact in the environment.

“There is a lot going on in the ecosystem right now, with support from experienced people and from technology as well. So I would advise the winners to take advantage of that and make an impact,” she added.

Judges at the event includes Africa Partner for Alta Global Ventures, a US-based venture capital company, Victor Asemota; Founder, Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe; Deputy Group CEO of ARM Group, Sadiq Mohammed and an Angel investor and Group Chief Sustainability and Governance Officer of Dangote Group, Dr. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien.

Lauding the DAAYTA 2019 Awards ceremony, Tech Strategy Advisor and Founder of TechnoVision, Tomi Davies noted that the award was different from the traditional pitch events based on the thorough processes involved.

He added: “I especially like the fact that the finalists had worked with each other before the event and bonded enough to help each other. At the end of the day, each of the 5 finalists that participated was a winner and went home with a prize and we all agreed that Murtala Sani of Wesabi deserved the first prize.”

Dare Odumade of Chekkit made the second position with his anti-counterfeiting, asset tracking and consumer feedback analytics platform and tool aimed at addressing the problem of counterfeiting, pilferage and inefficient supply of products. Yusuf Shittu of “Jojolo” Neo Childcare bagged the third position for his mobile child health service solution that seeks to provide top quality and affordable healthcare for children especially in low-income communities in Nigeria.

DAAYTA 2019 Awards was proudly supported by TechnoVision Communications Limited, a technology services company with speciality in advising clients on technology-led transformation and early-stage entrepreneurship in Africa.

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