Amidu Mohammed, the founder of Plastibuild Creative Solutions, emerged as the victor in the inaugural Small Business Innovation Challenge (SBIC) organised by Kade Keyo.
Plastibuild Creative Solutions specializes in providing consumer products that are both environmentally sustainable and cost-effective, with a strong emphasis on quality, performance, and long-lasting durability.
Mohammed’s philosophy is simple: “We believe that there is no waste; we rather consider every waste as a resource yet to be explored.”
With his innovative upcycling processes, Mohammed took home the coveted N50,000 cash prize.
The event, held on Friday, August 25, 2023, at the EridanSpace events hall in Ikeja, Lagos, showcased the entrepreneurial spirit of five small business owners and celebrated innovation in sustainable products.
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Ruth Sampson, the founder of Queen Gbeja Enterprise an enterprise that specialise in producing healthy drinks and snacks was also a participant at the event.
Others include Tola Mobuse (Lushylosh Concepts): Tola offers customized design solutions.
KIA KIA is a web solution that converts excess airtime into cash. And Khadijah (Olive Field Eduservices): Khadijah provides training to improve English language diction and phonics.
The SBIC initiative is championed by Kade Keyo, a dedicated advocate for societal growth through business development. This project aims to support and foster the development of small and micro-small businesses by providing cash grants to winning pitches, organising business clinics, and facilitating networking opportunities for entrepreneurs to encourage collaboration.
In his opening remarks at the pitch event, Tanho Attah, the convener, explained his motivation for creating the SBIC project. He emphasized that much of society often focuses on large businesses, yet small businesses play a critical role in the success of larger corporations.
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Attah stated, “Why I created this was to help members of the small business community with the infrastructure and support they may be lacking, which is why one of the qualities of the SBIC is the business clinic, created to help small businesses improve their processes and practices.”
During the event, he emphasized the importance of customers in sustaining and growing a business, underlining that customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals are the keys to success.
At the end of the pitch competition, Attah announced Amidu Mohammed as the winner, commending him for his seamless communication and demonstration of business profitability.
The SBIC 2023 edition also facilitated partnerships and potential deals, aligning with its goal of encouraging small business owners to support each other.
