The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has announced 26 start-ups expected to participate in the accelerator stage (physical bootcamp) of the NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI 2.0).

In a statement by the NSIA yesterday, the two-part accelerator phase initially had 100 start-ups selected after rigorous evaluation and due diligence carried out on over 7000 early-stage businesses that registered for the competition.

"They include Magic Carpet, Materials Pro, Jump n Pass, Awacash, VPay, Betalife, Centio Healthcare, Yalo, Pocket Lawyers, Doktorconnect and Trashcoin.

"Others are One Health, Redease, VPD, Kunda Kids, Agroxchange Technology, Sycamore, Passcoder, Earlybean, Powerfull, Adashe, Cash Africa, TownHall, Sakula, Pave, Tribapay.

At the physical bootcamp, these businesses will be exposed to interactive training sessions, networking opportunities with other innovators and tailored workshops.

The week-long physical bootcamp will culminate in a mini demo day where the start-ups will pitch their solutions before a panel of judges drawn from the technology and business ecosystem for a chance to proceed to the Demo Day and vie for a total combined prize value of US$220,000 with an all-expense paid five-week training at Draper University, Silicon Valley, USA.," the Authority explained.

Commenting on this development, the managing director and chief executive officer, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, noted that "the Authority remains focused on leveraging the NSIA Prize for Innovation to propel socio-economic development, especially by catalysing the technology ecosystem, encouraging youth entrepreneurship, advancing innovative solutions to everyday challenges and positioning Nigerian tech talents for global relevance."

The NSIA Prize for Innovation, which is the second edition, is the Authority's multi-year commitment to identify and nurture early stage businesses with potential for transformative impact in Nigeria.