Chioma Nkonu wins Nigeria’s social enterprise prize for Chivas The Venture

Chima Nkonu, Chief Executive Officer, Recycle Point has won the Chivas.

The Venture Social enterprise prize for the Nigeria leg of the competition ahead of the global phase schedule for 2017.

The event which was held at the ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel Lagos, rallied personalities from all walks of life to a moment of

decision where three of the contestant were give few minutes to do their final pitching on their projects.

The five-man panel of Judges includes the Chairman of Chocolate City, Audu Maikori, managing director of Pernod Ricard Nigeria, Olivier Fages, Ghanaian media personality and Forbes Africa correspondent Peace Hyde, Shola Ladoja and Njideka Okekearu of Pan African University.

The Chivas Regal The Venture is an initiative, which aims at investing in extraordinary startups that are using business to create positive change.

From a starting list of 226 social entrepreneurs, the Lagos Edition of the Chivas The Venture finally came to an end with Chioma Ukonu of Recycle Points winning the one million naira top prize as well as a chance to compete for a chunk of a million dollar fund in the global finals of the competition.

Nkonu who after a rigorous pitching session thrilled five-man panel of Judges with her presentation, out-staged two other finalists; Dr Emmanuel of Omome medical App and Destiny Fredrick of EcoFuture to emerge the winner of the Nigeria segment.

Nkonu of Recycle Point went home with a cash prize of N1,000,000, while Dr Emmanuel Omome medical App and Fredrick of EcoFuture collected N500,000 and N250,000 as first and second runner up respectively.

According to the Chivas The Venture grand finale Ambassador, Tobi Fasuyi, “the competition was tough to trim the numbers of entries from over 200 down to five and to the three finalists where Nkonu emerged

as the grand winner.

“It took us month of hard work and presentations to get the five who also went through rigorous tasks before they were scaled down to the last three best; Dr Emmanuel, Destiny Fredrick and Chioma Okonu.

“As a the winner of the Nigeria segment of The Venture, Okonu automatically qualifies to join other contenders in Oxford, UK for the Accelerator programme where she will later compete against 32 other global finalists in the United States of America.

However, the America contest for the Chivas The Venture Social enterprise prize of $1,000,000 is the next stage for Chioma Okonu and she has to prepare to face other social enterprise gladiators from other countries for the grand prize.

This time around, Okonu has to work extra hard to surpass the outing of Nigeria representative at the last edition, Angel Adelaja who lost out, but had a great experience as she had the opportunity to meet and cross fertilize business ideas with great entrepreneurs across the globe.