Etisalat and the building of community of innovators

Recently, Nigeria’s most innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat, rewarded two young Nigerians, Obi Brown and Chijioke Ezegbo, for their innovative product and idea geared at making invaluable impacts on individuals and organisations using mobile broadband technology. Mr. Brown’s winning product in the Most Innovative Product Category, Study Math Lab, is a repository of over 1300+ videos […]

Recently, Nigeria’s most innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat, rewarded two young Nigerians, Obi Brown and Chijioke Ezegbo, for their innovative product and idea geared at making invaluable impacts on individuals and organisations using mobile broadband technology.
Mr. Brown’s winning product in the Most Innovative Product Category, Study Math Lab, is a repository of over 1300+ videos solving math problems in over 49 topics in the NERDC curriculum for senior secondary school Math. The videos are solved by a team of Math teachers led by WAEC Chief Examiner.
For Chijioke, winner in the Most Innovative Idea category, his Dedicated Traffic Mapping Device (DTMD) winning idea is a GPRS enabled traffic navigation device with voice over  interface  which is affixed to a vehicle windshield (just like a rear view mirror) to help users navigate their way through traffic by accessing real-time traffic data and suggesting shorter or alternate routes.
Etisalat, in celebrating these innovative Nigerians, had presented them with a seven million naira cash reward in the ratio 5:2, a publicity campaign and mentoring session at the EDC of Pan Atlantic University.
The celebration of the young men was not another bolt from the blue, but rather a stark reflection of the company’s belief in and support for innovation. Matthew Willsher, Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, while speaking recently threw more light on this.
“We believe as an innovative company that we should support innovation and entrepreneurs throughout the country, and so what we do is organise the prize to encourage people to apply. We also provide prize money that people could invest in their innovative products and ideas to make them a reality as well as a mentorship to follow through and help people actually deliver on their innovations. The world is driven by innovation and Nigeria needs innovators whose ideas and products can drive development and help people live as they should. So we are pleased to provide a platform to mobilise the nation’s teeming crop of young and undiscovered innovators to impact all areas of the society,” he said.
There seems to be a general consensus that today’s world is a product of change and that it remains favourably and absolutely predisposed to it. In this light therefore, it is believed that only economies which can meaningfully respond to it would remain viable. This view is set against the background that modern societies are built and run on the crux of innovative ideas that are capable of engineering systemic transformation.
Nigeria, as a developing nation and emerging market, needs a departure from the old to the more trending innovative order that comes with a window of opportunities for individual fulfilment and national development. Indeed, there is no time in her post-independent history like now has this need become more compelling giving the growing demand for creative solutions that would guarantee improvement in standard of living and business growth.
Funke Opeke, the accomplished CEO of MainOne and Member, Board of Innovators echoed a similar sentiment while reviewing the place of innovation in the nation’s drive for economic growth in a fast changing world environment.