Two Nigerian start-ups have won $300,000 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after participating in the second edition of the LEAP, Technology Exhibition.

The two Start-ups are RiceAfrika Technologies and Wicrypt Technologies.

They emerged winners in different categories at the Rocket Fuel Pitch Competition, which was attended by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami.

According to a statement from the Head of Corporate Communications of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Hajiya Hadiza Umar, over 10,000 startups submitted applications from different countries.

” After rigorous scrutiny, the applicants were down to 220, and only 90 startups were selected to pitch their business ideas in the semi-final. Eight Nigerian Startups participated at the semi-final, and three reached the final stage, ” Umar said.

Giving details of the competition she said:”RiceAfrika Technologies – is a tech-driven agric optimisation startup that deploys IoT-enabled harvester and its FARMEasy mobile app for smallholder farming communities in Africa.

” RiceAfrika believes Africa can feed itself and feed the world. It emerged as the global best in ‘The Tech for Humanity Award’ category and is coming home with 150,000 dollars.

“While Wicrypt – An innovative Tech startup decentralising internet globally. The startup has a custom OS and hardware that allows users to share data with people around them and charge an affordable rate also won 150,000 dollars after it was announced as the global best in the ‘The Into New World Award’ category.”

According to Hajiya Umar, Prof Pantami commended the Digital Cooperation Organisation (DCO) based in Riyadh for organising the global event, and expressed delight over the performance of the Nigerian team. (The Nation)

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