The journey of Microsoft’s Agrotech Hackathon began in March 2022 and culminated in a grand finale in June 2022 at the Microsoft Africa Transformation Office (ATO), Lagos. The primary objective of the hackathon was to identify and proffer solutions encouraging sustainable, inclusive platform(s) for agro products and services, and at the same time digitally accessible to farmers and last-mile users.
“The reason we decided to have the hackathon is primarily to support the start-up ecosystem in Nigeria and we also want to ensure that we’re contributing to the growth of the economy, providing enabling technological capability, and driving meaningful impact in the agricultural sector,” says Olatomiwa Williams, Country Manager, Microsoft ATO.
Designed by Microsoft in partnership with Sterling Bank and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), applications for the hackathon were open to Nigerians between 18 and 45 years from any of the six geopolitical zones of the country. Applicants were also mandated to have demonstrated interest and/or experience in agriculture, technology and/or entrepreneurship.
“We requested for public participation, people to take part in solving local problems in the agricultural industry in the country, and we received almost 70,000 entries,” said Olatomiwa Williams continues. “Most of the entries were from the northern part of the country, which is mind-blowing because it shows the willingness and interest of a lot of people to solve the nation’s problems and they see technology as an enabler to these solutions. That’s something Microsoft is not taking for granted.”
Microsoft is no stranger to investing in and empowering the people of Africa. Since launching its 4Afrika Initiative in 2013, it has worked with start-ups, SMEs, government and youths in the agriculture, social impact, healthcare and skills development sectors to deliver affordable access to the internet, developing skilled workforces and investing in local technology solutions. 4Afrika believes in the power of technology to empower every person and organisation to achieve more.
The agrotech hackathon reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to the continent and its people.
From 70,000 to the Top 10
Three months after applications for the hackathon were thrown open to the public, the top 10 still standing gathered at Microsoft ATO’s office on a beautiful Lagos morning. They would go ahead and pitch against one another, to a panel of eight judges, and an intrigued audience of external and internal stakeholders of Microsoft in the first-ever aggrotech hackathon.
“So the idea of the hackathon primarily is to make sure that we have a minimum of 10 new solutions that will go into our start-up ecosystem so that we can develop them, and get them, hopefully, on to soonicorn/unicorn level at some point,” explains Olatomiwa Williams. “They would go into our global entrepreneurship program where they would have access to mentors, our tools, modern work solutions, etc. to ensure that they have the right tools that they need to develop viable businesses.”
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Opening remarks by Microsoft and Sterling Bank kicked off the event. It is worthy of note that Sterling Bank focuses on the following sectors of the economy – health, education, agriculture, renewable energy, and transportation (heart). And smack in the middle of this focus is agriculture with the bank developing the agrotech environment and agricultural ecosystem as a whole. As one of Microsoft’s partners on this initiative, mutual interests enable both organizations to align seamlessly. Sterling Bank also provided financial support in form of gifts to the top three winners and will offer financial literacy on how to develop the businesses.
NITDA, another partner and a government agency, provided financial support to the top seven participating businesses as well, offering all their hubs across Nigeria depending on the location of the businesses to leverage its services as a way of co-creating and developing their solutions. Their partnership is evidence of the traction Microsoft ATO is gaining with its activities in Nigeria.
Microsoft ATO will continue to actively seek partnerships for its initiatives as it realizes that no one individual organization can do it all. It is currently in talks with Office Cherifien des Phosphates, The OCP Group, a Moroccan state-owned phosphate rock miner, phosphoric acid manufacturer and fertilizer producer, and looking to form areas of synergy where OCP can also contribute significantly to the top winners. Microsoft believes strongly in the possibility of providing the right guidance and tools for the participants and it will continue to enable them.
Soon after the opening remarks, the ten teams delivered their presentations with a time limit of 15 minutes each. Five minutes to speak, five minutes for a demo, and the final five to tackle the judges’ questions/comments.
In alphabetical order, the teams were:
- Agoralease
- Agricon
- Agroconnect
- Farmer’s market
- Farmsquare
- Kikifarm
- Royal Grocery Shop (RGS)
- Software Chasers
- Zion
The young, innovative minds of the above bright ideas represented eight states (Benue, Enugu, Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo) and the federal capital territory of the country.
And the winners were. . .
Team Software Chasers took the ultimate prize of N2.5M, closely followed by Team Farmsquare with N1.5M, and Team Farmer’s Market rounding off the top three with N1M. Congratulations to the three winners, the top ten and all who took part in this journey to discovering solutions to local problems and contributing to the improvement of the agrotech ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa.
“This is a testimony of Microsoft’s keen interest in Africa,” says Olatomiwa Williams. “We believe that Africa has huge growth potential. Nigeria is one of the focus markets for us. We’ll continue to invest; we’ll continue to look for ways to partner to accelerate the growth, digital transformation growth of Africa.”
Microsoft is also looking to organize other hackathons for other industries as well as seek various ways to enable the ecosystems. It will be running a start-up series for already existing start-ups with solutions and will work with them to develop the solutions into full-fledged ones that are market worthy.
