Big Pot, Truuscore, 1 million Teachers emerge as winners of CcHub Diaspora Challenge

Three startups, Big Pot, Truuscore, 1 million Teachers, have been announced as the winners of maiden edition of CcHub Diaspora Challenge. They emerged from over 250 entries from scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs across the diaspora community in the UK.

The CcHUB Diaspora Challenge was launched in May 2017, giving a chance for people to provide innovative workable ideas with a focus to address issues and challenges in the energy, finance and education sectors. The objective was to tap the diverse wealth of resources that Nigerians living abroad could contribute to national development.

Big Pot was chosen in the Energy stream. It is power utility startup founded by Oluyemi Jegede that provides solar energy to small and medium sized residences and businesses through smart community microgrids distributed via a blockchain network formed by geographically dispersed solar photovoltaic panel installations and lithium ion battery storage.

In the Education Stream, 1 Million Teachers emerged as the chosen idea. It is an education based startup on a mission to fix education in Africa by empowering teachers with skills and knowledge using gamified and incentives based learning. This startup, founded by Hakeem Subair, aims to develop a subscription-based online learning platform for teachers.

And finally, TruuScore (FinTech Stream), a FinTech startup founded by Dr. Freda Owusu. TruuScore is a credit reference service which uses a person-centered algorithm to enable credit scoring for the financially excluded populace. TruuScore is developing a person-centred system that enables credit scoring, using multiple data sources.

“It was an intensely difficult challenge to moderate as there were many frontline and innovative ideas,” said Femi Longe, CcHUB Director, Innovation/Consulting. “The three winning startups showed a credible benefit to daily challenges within the Nigerian sectors and also have the potential to deliver economic remittance. We look forward to working with these entrepreneurs to help them build sustainable and scalable businesses.”

According to ‘Bosun Tijani, CEO and Co-founder, CcHUB; ‘Nigeria is experiencing an unprecedented growth and with this comes developmental gaps and issues. We believe that the restructuring of Nigeria is one that requires collective efforts needing all hands on deck. The Diaspora Challenge is one of the vehicles through which we want to drive innovation for a better society by tapping into the innovative wealth of Africans in the diaspora eager to proffer solutions’

Each of the three winning startups will receive a $15,000 investment, and will be enrolled into a 9 month long CcHUB Acceleration Programme, custom fit with business advisory support, access to a wide network of mentors with domain knowledge expertise in a bid to build and scale.