Enactus Nigeria, a foremost international non-for profit organization dedicated to youth leadership and enterprise development has announced Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria team as the winner of its 2022 national champion competition and Tai Solarin University of Education as second place team.
Despite the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, Enactus teams in Nigeria, made up of undergraduates of tertiary institutions from all backgrounds and disciplines, invested time and other resources to develop and implement start-up social enterprises with great potentials to empower individuals, transform communities, create job and wealth opportunities while improving the quality of life and standard of living of people in communities around the country.
Michael Ajayi, country director, Enactus Nigeria, “like all other national competitions preceding it, the Enactus Nigeria National Competition 2022 provided these resourceful and dynamic students (social innovators) the opportunity to showcase the impact of their efforts over the past one year to a panel of judges consisting of CEOs of top corporate organizations in Nigeria.”
He further stated “a total of 16 Enactus university teams participated in this exciting and energetic event that took place in three stages. The opening round and semi-final round were held as virtual events between July 26th and 28th, 2022, while the final round was held as an in-person event attended by top executives, students, lecturers and dignitaries in Nigeria, at the prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on August 30th, 2022.”
“At the end of the three stages of the entrepreneurial competition, the Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria team with two most innovative and impactful social enterprises namely, PUP Industries and Tompa was adjudged the Enactus Nigeria National Champion 2022 and will be representing Nigeria at the prestigious international competition, Enactus World Cup, holding in San Juan, Puerto Rico between October 30th and November 2nd, 2022.”
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PUP Industries, PUP stands for Plastic Up-cycled Products, a social enterprise that tackles plastic waste in our immediate environment, in Kaduna state, in Nigeria and the World at large by up-cycling plastics into higher value products such as first Nigerian made shoe polish, PUP polish and PUP board. Tompa converts fresh tomatoes into powdered form to tackle farmer’s losses due to farm insecurities, tomatoes wastage, draught, pests’ attacks and long-distance transportation in local communities such as Bomo and Samaru.
Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria team was also recognized at the event as the winner of the Team Ambassador Challenge for 2022.
According to Janice Akpobaro, Lead, Special Projects and Communications, Enactus Nigeria “this initiative was set to challenge Enactus Student teams to show how excited they are about the Enactus Nigeria National Competition 2022, the Enactus program, the impact on them and the Nigeria society at large by creating video skits which was shared on all Enactus Nigeria social media platforms to determine the video skit with the highest social media engagements.”
“Six Enactus student teams namely, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Calabar, Babcock University, Tai Solarin University of Education, University of Uyo, and Bayero University Kano participated in this challenge and Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria won with over 10,000 social media engagements.”
At the close of the event, Ajayi extended his appreciation to all institutions and corporate organizations that have, at some point, supported Enactus Nigeria in its over 20 years of operations in Nigeria such as KPMG; BIC Group; Ford Foundation; Sahara Group; US Consulate; US Embassy; Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB); and Sc Johnson.
Others are; Enactus Germany; ACT Foundation; Netcom Africa; GIZ; Interswitch; Chevron; Bank of Industry (BOI); JumiaPay; AXA Mansard; GTBank; First Bank; Unilever; Nestle Nigeria; Accenture; Lekoil; Coca-Cola Foundation; Coca-Cola; MTNF; FHN; SEPLAT; ACA Foundation; STI; FCMB; UAC Foods; Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc; Microsoft; Accenture; Sterling Bank; SMEDAN and Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC).
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