In what appears to be yet another milestone in the agricultural sector, the tech giant, Microsoft, in collaboration with Sterling Bank, NITDA and TedPrime Hub has announced three agro-digital solutions as winners at the just concluded Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon.
The grand finale, which was held at Microsoft Africa Transformation Office, Lagos Nigeria featured 10 solutions by the Nigerian youths from Abuja FCT, Benue, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto.
The winning digital solutions: Sell Harvest, Farmsquare and Farmers’ Market were announced as first (with N2.5M), second with (N1.5M) and third position with (1 Million Naira) respectively by Sterling Bank after rigorous pitch rounds and product testing reviews by season experts and independent jury drawn from Agriculture, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Research and Development sectors.
The National Hackathon which commenced on March 2022 with the ultimate goal of designing digital solutions that bolster value chain in agriculture and connect thousands of farmers to end-product users together for the next decade was designed by Microsoft in partnership with Sterling Bank and NITDA.
Speaking at the opening session, the Microsoft Country Manager Nigeria and Ghana; Olatomiwa Williams in her Keynote reiterated the position of Microsoft in harnessing the potentials of African youths to support the continent by raising over 40,000 home grown Start-ups in critical sectors as envisioned by Microsoft Africa Transformation Office. “It is Microsoft’s pleasure to onboard these creative youths as finalists at this occasion into the exclusive Microsoft Global Entrepreneurship Program.
The Group Head, Agric & Solid Minerals Finance of Sterling Bank PLC, Dr. Olushola Obikanye in his presentation expressed his delight on the new milestone in the Nigeria’s agricultural sector through a robust digital transformation framework as one of the five pillars of Sterling Bank’s approach to National Development outside its core banking services.