By Innocent Obasi
All On, a Shell-funded impact investment company, in collaboration with the Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC), has awarded $10,000 grant each to eight renewal energy companies who won the 2022 edition of the annual incubation program for early-stage renewable energy entrepreneurs.
The winners, out of which four are women-led ventures, emerged from a total of 290 applicants from which 18 ventures were shortlisted and completed the six-month incubation program conducted by the NCIC
They are Let It Cold, Energy Assured, Danwawo Group, and Solaris Greentech Hub (women-led), and Retile, Nutrideen Agriculture Concepts, Swift Tranzact, and Powerbox Energy Systems.
This year’s incubation program was aimed at contributing to the reduction of Nigeria’s energy-access gap by building a pipeline of early-stage renewable energy enterprises with the potential to scale. The programme started training new cohorts in May 2022 and the 18 shortlisted pitched their business plans to a seasoned, varied panel of judges at a demo event held in Lagos in October which marked the completion of the Embryo Incubation program (EIP).
Some of the clean energy ideas presented at this year’s pitching event include solar-powered cooling systems, cold storage solutions, solar home systems (SHS), solar generators, energy efficiency technologies, and biogas production.
Damilola Asaleye, vice president, Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), who was the judge for this year’s incubation program, praised the ideas presented this year as innovative, outstanding, original, and demonstrated sustainability.
“The quality of the pitches was top-notch. They all demonstrated that Africa and Nigeria can solve energy poverty with locally developed solutions. NCIC and All On are truly unlocking potential,” Asaleye said.
“The shared vision of All On and NCIC has been to groom early-stage clean energy entrepreneurs, providing them with the key ingredients to enable their dreams of impacting unserved communities a reality,” she said.
Bankole Oloruntoba, CEO of NCIC, reiterated the organization’s commitment to the growth of renewable energy start-ups in Nigeria. He reflected on the journey of the EIP, noting that over 50 ideation-stage businesses have gone through the program.
Oloruntoba thanked All On for its partnership which over the last three years has provided funding and capacity-building support to the renewable energy start-ups. He also charged the entrepreneurs to remain focused and maximize the resources available to them through the NCIC network to accelerate the growth of their businesses, drawing inspiration from notable alumni from the previous cohorts.
Zainab Abdulwaheed, co-founder of Let It Cold and one of the female recipients of the $10,000 grant, thanked All On and NCIC for the opportunity.
“My business has benefited from my participation in the incubation program over the last six months, and we have improved our understanding of how a business operates,” she said.
