Nigeria Tops List Of Start-Ups At DEMO Africa 2014

Nigeria leads in the list of over 40 start-ups selected to participate in this years' Demo Africa 2014. The list, which was recently released by the organisers, comprises young men and women, whose products were selected based on competence and ability to address common challenges.

Nigeria takes the largest chunk of the final 40 with a total of 14 start-ups, followed by Kenya, Ghana and Egypt. Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Ethiopia, each has two representatives, while Tunisia, Benin, Cameroon, Uganda and Zimbabwe also earned their space at the DEMO Africa platform.

The event, which is the biggest tech event in Africa is scheduled to take place on the 25th and 26th of September at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos. It is being organised in collaboration with the LIONS@FRICA partners, which include Microsoft, Nokia, US State Department, DEMO, USAID, African Development Bank, and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

The selected forty start-ups will have a chance to launch their products to an ecosystem of venture capitalists that include Angel Investors, Tech Acquisition Specialists, IT buyers and media from across the region and around the globe.

They are also undergoing coaching and mentorship programmes from both local and international mentors and coaches organised by DEMO Africa and the US State Department.

Chairman, DEMO Africa Local Organising Committee for Nigeria, Mr. Yele Okeremi said: “We are happy that the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson has shown a lot of interest in this and made sure that with this initiative which is running on the platform of the ministry and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), is able to bring DEMO Africa to Nigeria for the very first time.”

Commending the African entrepreneurs, Johnson said: “This presents another opportunity for African tech startups. Africa may have missed out in the industrial revolution, but we surely will not in the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution. Through innovation, we will put Nigeria and Africa in general on the ICT map. Realising the huge potential of the software industry, we have put in place a set of initiatives that will assist the tech start-ups to create successful businesses, which will directly create jobs and wealth for the country."

One of the members of the local organising committee, Kola Oyeneyin, explained that DEMO Africa would provide the funding through investors, and also ensure that the forty technology ideas from the forty start-ups, becomes successful across logistics, manufacturing, and education sectors of the economy.

“This initiative is taking Information Technology (IT) to the next level on a foreign platform and for the first time, the expression of technology across different spaces in Nigeria would be seen,” Oyeneyin said, adding, that DEMO Africa is a must-attend event for both investors, entrepreneurs, tech media and others looking for Africa’s ‘next big thing’.

- ThisDay