In celebration of 100 years of Union Bank, Nigeria’s simpler, smarter bank is running a Centenary Innovation Challenge to unearth and support good ideas for addressing critical social and business challenges in Nigeria in entrepreneurial ways.
The innovation challenge will engage eligible young and talented people across Nigeria to submit novel ideas to specific problem areas or thematic issues of interest to Union Bank. We will encourage applicants to propose innovative ideas that solve fundamental social and commercial challenges faced by Nigerians in a range of sectors starting in one community but potentially scalable across the nation.
Through the challenge, we hope to find hidden social innovators across the length and breadth of Nigeria, supporting them to develop their ideas and to scale leveraging digital technology and Union Bank’s reach and networks.
Individuals and partnerships (of not more than 3 persons) from university students, software developers, academics and entrepreneurs in Nigeria can participate for this program.
The competition will run in the following stages:
Call for Ideas | 12th April – 19th May, 2017
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Idea Sprint Workshops | 18th April – 9th May, 2017
Pitch Preparation | 2nd June – 20th June, 2017
Pitching Session & Selection of Winners | 27th June, 2017
Incubation | 30th June – 15th December, 2017
Ideas Needed
You can submit ideas for applications, technologies, tools, services or other kinds of digital innovation. We’re particularly keen to hear great ideas for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in entrepreneurial ways.
We’re particularly keen to hear ideas related but not limited to financial inclusion, agriculture and education etc. Ideas may be totally brand new or extensions of existing products and services.
We are open to all ideas as long as they are innovative, solve a clear problem and contribute to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
How To Win
Winners will be contacted by email in May. Due to the volume of submissions we anticipate, only semi-finalists (top 10 ideas) will be notified once selection has taken place. The top 3 selected ideas will attract immediate cash prizes and further incubation support via the Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) incubation services with full engagement with Union Bank.
The best ideas generated & submitted will leverage Union Bank’s expertise and the reach of its value chain to develop and scale. The top 3 ideas will receive immediate cash prizes of 2 million Naira, 1.5 million Naira and 1 million Naira respectively towards the execution of the idea. Further incubation support will be provided via the Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) incubation services with full engagement with Union Bank.
Over the subsequent six months, the top three ideas will be supported with a range of services focused on product development, distribution and business modelling to turn their ideas into fully working products to launch in late 2017.