GITEX: Nigerian start-up emerges global best in mobility, smart cities

A Nigerian start-up, Shap-Shap, has won the Mobility and Logistics Innovation category challenge in the Supernova Challenge Pitch Competition at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai.

Mrs Hadiza Umar, Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said this in a statement late last week in Abuja.

The Chief Executive Officer of Shap-Shap, Mr Khalil Halilu, who was among the two Nigerian start-ups to enter the final stage of the competition was presented with a cash prize of $8,000.

Mr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy was elated by the success story while describing the victory as a win for all Nigerians and a clarion call for investors to invest in Nigerian startups.

“It shows that we are doing well. Don’t forget that we have around seven unicorns in Africa and five out of them originated from Nigeria.

“If you look at the competition up to semi-finals, we had nine start-ups and at the finals, we had two start-ups and now we have one winner.

“It is a clear indication that we are doing well. The future is certainly bright for Nigeria when it comes to digital innovation and entrepreneurship,” Pantami said.

The Director-General of  NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, while appraising the competition, said the solution, Shap-Shap presented was going to impact not only Nigeria but the global market.

“This shows that we have people with innovative ideas that can change the world positively.

“This is how others started like Uber and other logistics applications.

“In Nigeria, most of the strength we have today is in Fintech but other categories like e-health, edutech and mobility,  logistics and smart cities are areas we need start-ups that can solve problems for our local consumption and the world in general”, Inuwa said.

Inuwa further said that the different success stories achieved by the Nigerian team underscored the fact that the country’s participation in GITEX was indeed lucrative.

Halilu, who lacked words to express his joy was thankful for the prize and promised to deploy the money judiciously.

He also thanked the Federal Government for always supporting startups.

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