How Airtel’s ‘Catapult-A-Start-Up’ drives entrepreneurship
On May 7 and 8, 2013, the Responsible Business Summit was held in London, the United Kingdom. The rationale behind the summit was to fashion out how best businesses could marry profitability and social responsibility.One of the strongest and most salient take-aways from the event was that ‘businesses cannot be successful when the society around them fails’.
In Nigeria, many corporations look away while one out of three start-ups dies within three years. But Airtel Nigeria, a leading telecoms operator, has demonstrated that it is not only a responsible corporation but also a responsive one, with a solid plan to catapult start-ups to conglomerates.
Recently, Airtel launched an entrepreneurial initiative tagged ‘Catapult-a-Start-up’, a platform which aims to inspire innovation and assist start-up service providers towards actualising their business goals and dreams.
Airtel provided this platform for budding service providers to receive advanced mentoring from industry veterans, funding, marketing, and also improve their skills to become successful using their creativity.
The firm made it explicitly clear from the outset that start-ups interested in participating in the programme should submit their ideas and presentations to the ‘Catapult-a-Start-up’ website at www.cas.ng, for evaluation.
Further procedures were equally clear. After the initial evaluation, selected start-ups would be invited to pitch their ideas to a panel of esteemed judges who would do a thorough evaluation and select the best start-up proposals.
The promoters of the selected start-up proposals would then be supported with a cash prize of N1 million, including mentoring, funding, marketing and a chance to integrate their developed apps and services on the Airtel platform, gaining direct access to the telco’s large customer base.
Speaking during the launch in Lagos, Segun Ogunsanya, managing director and chief executive officer, Airtel Nigeria, said that Airtel, as an innovative and forward thinking brand, initiated the programme in line with its vision to encourage innovation and empower young Nigerians by creating opportunities for them to bring their business ideas to fruition.
“At Airtel, we are passionate about building a community for young talented Nigerians. We are aware of the abundance of young people who are blessed with the skills to develop relevant apps with most of them not having the opportunity to showcase or develop their skills,” Ogunsanya said.
“Through the Catapult-a-Start-up programme, we aim not only to identify talent, but also to encourage local content. The apps and services developed by these start-ups will ride on Airtel’s superior 3.75G network in Nigeria and the large customer base. Airtel will continue to go the extra mile at empowering them to succeed in their respective endeavours,” he added.
True to his words, winners have emerged in Airtel’s ‘Catapult-a Start-up’. One thing that stands out all the winners is that their businesses exude creativity and are all targeted at solving current problems of the country.
We usher you into the world of Samson Abioye, CEO, Check Right (Pass.Ng), based in Ikoyi, Lagos, one of the winners. Abioye runs Pass.ng, which is an examination testing platform for students, targeted at secondary school leaving students preparing to sit for major examinations in Nigeria such as the West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The firm enables candidates to take tests and prepare themselves with the chance of getting better ahead of the exams.
“We think we were selected by Airtel because we have a good idea. We can scale very fast and we are delivering a product that is needed in the market as people want to pass,” said Abioye.
“The app is currently being deployed on playstore and the service is available on our website (www.pass.ng). It costs N100 for a day to access full test; N200 a week and N500 a month,” Abioye further said, adding, “With the cash donation from Airtel, we hope to develop our service more, example in the area of audio-video tutorials. So it will help us improve our services as we are not yet where we want to be.”
Another winner is Ovo Emorhokpor, CEO, Yuzah, based in Lagos, with an online platform, www.yuzah.com.
Yuzah is an online market place that connects buyers and sellers of diesel who meet and transact businesses on daily basis.
Emorhokpor, whose online firm has had 1,000 orders since December 2014, said, “We believe we were chosen because Airtel recognised our service solves a problem on two angles. For the customers it is a convenient way of getting diesel, and for the sellers, it helps them get across to buyers”.
“Airtel has an experience in the tele-marketing space and is also a trusted brand. The firm has a wide network of partners around the country which can also benefit us; its number of subscribers is s huge target we could tap into,” Emorhokpor said.
Odunayo Eweniyi, chief quality officer, and Joshua Chibueze, chief marketing officer, PUSH CV, Yaba, Lagos, were joint winners. Push CV is an internet company that enables efficient recruitment by providing pre-screened candidates for employers and recruitment agencies. It is an online employability program co-organised by companies like GT bank, Airtel and McKenzie, among others, according to Eweniyi and Chibueze.
“We are currently in the last stage of the training and will be providing 5,000 qualified candidates to present to employers,” they said, adding, “We believe we were chosen by Airtel because we have a good idea.”
Olusegun Bright, Chief Technical Officer, Match Up, based in Ilupeju, Lagos, was also among the winners. The firm helps find and connect people, especially singles between the ages of 18 and 45.
“The app is not currently being deployed anywhere. But it will be on play store once it is ready. The app is free to download and payment is made on subscription basis,” Bright said.
According to Bright, his firm was chosen by Airtel not just because of a good idea but for its several great ideas.
“We understood how our idea will work in tandem with Airtel. Its mentorship is superb. We have learnt a lot and also the clout of having Airtel as a partner is beautiful,” he added.
ODINAKA ANUDU