Success Damian
Extraclass.ng, recently won the star prize of N1 million dubbed
Taiwo Bankole Ogunyemi Prize at the Techtiary Forum 2017.
The Forum was organised by Paradigm Initiative, a social
enterprise, which connects youths with ICT-enabled opportunities.
The Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative (PIN) Gbenga Sesan,
while presenting the N1 million cheque (mock) to the Co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer of Extraclass.ng, Onyinyechi Nmecha, commended the innovative
platform and advised the team to work more assiduously in order to make good
use presented by the prize money.
Sesan believes that a big part of the price money would go into
building capacity of extraclass.ng to do more in the market place.
Techtiary Forum 2017 which was a two-day programme with the theme,
“Geek Entrepreneur – Beyond Coding” was held on November 28 and 29 in Yaba,
Lagos.
Nmecha expressed her happiness after coming on top pitching along
other 30 founders, developers, teams and Co-Founders.
In an exclusive interview with The AUTHORITY, Sesan said “Techtiary
Forum is an Annual event that we have for our students in tertiary
institutions, hence the name tertiary and Tech. The idea is basically to work
with students in tertiary institutions, so they don’t spend their time just to
passing courses and getting certificates and then looking for jobs.
“The idea of tertiary is that we go through a multi-years programme
where in year one students start what they would do when they graduate. They
pick up relevant skills such that when they are doing their final year it is
not one copy and pest thing they are doing, but a business idea or a project or
something they can deploy.
On those that are qualified for Techtiary Forum, Sesan answered that
it is meant for any student in Nigeria who is interested in the forum, adding
that the focus is technology and that the students can come from any discipline
as long as they are passionate and committed to the process.
On the choice of the panelists, he said “The choice of the panelists
are based on their practical experiences, to talk to the students on how do you
find money and how you do not focus on money, but by providing solutions, and
then you can be rewarded with finance and other things. That is why we brought
people who have succeeded, somebody who can tell them why I shut those
companies, or why I open this company, practical experience.”
The Chief Executive Officer of Lucy.ng, an online superstore, Olaleye
Lawoyi Lucas, who was one of the panelists said “We actually make it easy for
individuals and corporate organisations to buy items for seasons, occasions and
events.
He said his business has been on for 3 years and have sold about 250,
000 products worth over N80million since inception ago.
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