As part of the round up activities for the year long enterprise and digital training programme for Nigerian startups, Facebook Nigeria and FATE Foundation have announced the Final Pitch Competition for the Aspiring Entrepreneurs Digital programme.Co-Created by the two organisations, the Aspiring Entrepreneurs: Digital programme is a 4 week programme focused on enabling young Nigerian entrepreneurs across the country with essential business and digital strategies, knowledge, skills and tools to grow their businesses. Between February and November 2018, the programme ran 8 times across 7 Nigerian cities holding twice in Lagos and also in Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Kaduna and Enugu with 40 entrepreneurs per stream.

With over 2,800 applications received, the programme enrolled 320 young Nigerian entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 years for the programme of which almost half were female entrepreneurs.

At the end of the 4 week programme, each stream held a local pitch competition where the 40 entrepreneurs all pitched to panel of local business and digital experts to select a winner to represent their class. The 8 local pitch winners will be Pitching at the grand finale competition scheduled to hold at the NG Hub from Facebook on the 10th of December, 2018 where they will pitch their businesses to a panel of judges for a chance to win support and prizes from Facebook and FATE Foundation. Prizes will include Facebook Ad Credits and one on one expert support and technical advisory services for the top 3 winning business in the areas of digital marketing, financial and tax management and business plan development.

“We are excited to hold this grand finale competition which has helped us provide growth support and digital enablement knowledge to entrepreneurs across the country who are already creating about 1, 605 jobs” says Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director, FATE Foundation. “This partnership with Facebook which is expected to continue over the next year is creating significant impact for startups on their path to grow their businesses, create jobs and reach wider markets. The Pitch competition will be a celebration of all the highlights of the programme to date.”

For additional details on the Pitch competition, please email [email protected].