Application: June 8 2014
The Techlaunchpad is a public private partnership focused on carefully selected tech start-ups who will be provided a training and mentorship program through Heads of ICT and Executives of private sector. The mentors work with the tech startups and young entrepreneurs to provide inputs to their software development to ensure the solutions have socio-economic relevance within the targeted industry.
In addition to assisting the start-ups to build software that meets international standards, the programme is also to provide access to fund and market, which are some of the inhibiting factors to the growth of the local, young technology companies.
One of the mandates of the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology is to promote and facilitate the development of the ICT industry in Nigeria. And the software industry presents a huge potential for job and wealth creation in Nigeria.
To catalyse this, the Federal Ministry of Communication Technology launched a Technology Innovation Program called the Techlaunchpad in collaboration with the private sector in 2012 to assist Nigerian technology startups (with viable solutions) to grow and develop their products and business for commercial purposes.
The First Edition of the programme which ran from July 2013 to March 2014 was targeted at the banks and oil and gas industries whereby eight (8) tech start-ups through rigorous processes of application, evaluation, shortlisting and selection conducted by the Ministry and its partners . They were incubated at the iDEA Centre in Lagos.
The program partners include Accenture, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Totalfina Elf, First Bank, Access Bank, Fate Foundation and others.
This Second Edition of the programme is targeted at the production of innovative, business-aligned software solutions for the Telecommunications, Agriculture and Logistics, Building and Construction and Health sectors. The Second Edition seeks tech startups with solutions that can address the following areas:
- Agriculture and Logistics
-
- Agribusiness Productivity
- Agribusiness Logistics
- Agribusiness Marketing (at national, regional and global regions)
- Inventory Control
- Transport Control and Operations
- Building and Construction
-
- Construction Project Modeling & Project Control
- Design and Quality Control System
- Project and Material Planning, forecasting and Costing
- Telecommunication
-
- Mobile Applications
- Analytics
- Real-time Monitoring
- Base Station Monitoring
- Social Media (Listening to mentions)
Who can Pitch
Existing, new and aspiring software developers (company or individuals).:
- Nationality
-
- Participants must be Nigerian citizens
- Participants must be of a minimum of 18 years
- Participants must be available in Nigeria throughout the duration of the programme
- Participants with business entities must be registered in Nigeria with a minimum of 51% local equity (i.e.. At least 51% of the company should be owned by Nigerians)
How to Pitch
Eligible individuals and companies are encouraged to apply
To Apply, complete the online application form. Please read instructions carefully.