Agencies under Nigeria ‘s Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy have been directed to set up research grants for startups with promising innovative solutions that will help in the fight against COVID-19.

“NITDA, the Nigerian Communications Commission, other parastatal agencies under the ministry should look into their budget and find a way of raising research grants for the support of innovative ideas.

“Their support should be basically on digital solutions because we need to promote research to eradicate COVID-19 in Nigeria, Africa and globally,” Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami said.

Here Is What You Need To Know

• The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Dr. Isa Pantami, disclosed this during the virtual Final Demo and Prize Giving Day of the Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge organized by the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA).
• The concerned agencies include the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Communications Satellite Systems, Galaxy Backbone and Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).

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• The COVID-19 Innovation Challenge was targeted at leveraging on using indigenous innovative technology to address the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The NITDA committee on COVID-19 Innovation challenge was set up in April 3 and they received 1,519 applications, while the best five were selected to demonstrate their solutions.
• The first three successful applications were awarded and they include Algorizmi Health, an application that would address scaling up the availability of ventilators as first position.
• Smart Disinfection Chambers, an application on smart tunnel for disinfection of perdons entering a location stood out at second position.
• MyClinic.ng, an application that enhances remote patient management took the third position.
• The solutions were accessed based on potential impact of innovation with regard to COVID-19, adaptability, scalability, creativity and presentation skills.
• The first three successful entries were awarded with N1,000,000, N750,000, N500,000 respectively and urged NITDA to facilitate the incubation of the solutions for COVID-19.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer