Driving Youth Entrepreneurial Spirit through “Startupper of the Year” Challenge
Total Nigeria Plc and Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria recently unveiled a social and societal challenge aimed at encouraging and supporting young entrepreneurs tagged “startupper of the year by Total”. The contest, initiated simultaneously by Total Group in Nigeria and in 33 African countries, is targeted at youths by not only giving them financial support but also customized coaching, an impactful and rewarding label and visibility.
The challenge is a local contest that aims to identify, reward and provide support for the best business creation and business development projects in Africa. Its purpose is to provide support for projects designed to promote social and economic development of 34 countries on the African continent including Nigeria.
The competition, a tangible contribution to Nigeria’s growth momentum, is open to all projects regardless of the type of business or activity. There is no formal limitation or restriction in terms of business sector but economic and social criteria such as innovation, expertise, development prospects, profitability, age of entrepreneur, sustainable added value, job creation, local transformation and substitution to imports.
“The Challenge “Startupper of the year by Total” is part of Total’s global initiative of supporting the socioeconomic development of all the countries where it operates worldwide. It is a very concrete action launched to locally contribute to the reinforcement of the industrial fabric and to employment on the African continent, by supporting the most daring and innovative entrepreneurs in realizing their project. This approach targets the emergence of new initiatives, while respecting the Total Group values”, said Alexis Vovk, Managing Director of Total Nigeria Plc, during the media briefing to unveil the project.
It is projected to be held every two years to give the organizers enough time to properly support the winners and sustainably establish the initiative.
The terms and conditions of participation reflect the contest’s business orientation; support for the creation or development of businesses less than two years old, open to individuals under 35 years old and no restriction in terms of activity.
The contest is aligned with emphasis on helping to build economic capacity, thus, participants must submit their business creation or development project in Nigeria. Embedded in this is the objective to promote local content and the entrepreneurial drive of young business people who are citizens of Nigeria to encourage them to take part in developing their communities. Though, Nigerians in Diaspora can participate, however, they must submit only their projects existing in Nigeria or to be developed in Nigeria.
Each contestant is allowed to submit only one project.
The project shall satisfy either of the two criteria. First, the project pertains to a new business start-up that must be created in Nigeria and implemented within a maximum period of six months following the selection of the winners; this period can be extended at the discretion of Total Group. Second, the project pertains to a business that is less than two years old and is currently being developed in Nigeria.
Applications must be exclusively submitted via the online platform at https://startuppper. total.com. A list of information and documents to be provided by the contestant at the time they apply is available on the website. The contestant will have to provide their resume and will have the possibility to attach as many elements as necessary to convince the jury: business plan, financial plan, resume of co-founders, executive summary, possible commercial brochure, video presentation of the project amongst others. Contestants may not make changes to their applications once they have been submitted. All applications by the participants may be submitted between November 1, 2015 and January 31, 2016 and every application submitted after the closing date shall not be considered.
The Startupper of the year by Total challenge will run in two stages; the pre-selection of applications by the jury and the final presentation phase including an oral presentation to the jury which will select the best projects.
During the pre-selection stage, applications that are complete and meet the eligibility requirements will be individually reviewed by a jury of professionals.
The jury will select up to ten of the best projects submitted, which will be placed on the list of finalists. The jury reserves the right to ultimately select only the applications that it deems to have met its selection criteria. The jury’s decisions are made at its own discretion and are not subject to appeal.
After the pre-selection phase, the list of selected finalists will be e-mailed to each finalist and posted on the website by February 28, 2016. Once the results have been posted, finalists will have five calendar days to confirm by e-mail their desire to continue with the next phase of the contest via the contest website.
The dates of the final presentations, which will take place no less than seven calendar days after the announcement of the results of the pre-selection.
During the final presentation phase, each finalist will be invited to make a PowerPoint presentation for a maximum of 15 minutes to the jury using the sample provided by Total Group in Nigeria. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session for 10 minutes. Following this stage, the jury will select up to 3 of the best projects which will be placed on the list of winners in order of ranking.
“At the end of the process, beyond the successful entries, this competition must have engineered a lot of businesses and brought to life a lot of projects that would have remained as a mere thought by these young people”, said Chizor Malize, chief executive of Brandzone and communications consultants for the project.
The jury is also free to choose fewer than 3 projects or no project at all at its own discretion and its decision is not subject to appeal. Projects are deemed fit on the basis of the following criteria; the nature and quality of the project, the quality of presentations and the values and attitudes demonstrated by the finalists, including in particular their engagement, motivation and conviction.
The jury is made up of 12 professional executives including the managing directors of Total Nigeria Plc and Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria. The jury includes managers from national and international groups representing a wide variety of business sectors, representatives of public and semi-public organizations, institutional officials, leaders of national and international organizations as well as acknowledged experts and analysts.
“The jury members comprise a crop of acknowledged experts and analysts drawn from reputable Nigerian and international organisations. They represent a wide variety of business sectors.
We are therefore very confident that the best ideas will be chosen and assure Nigerians of utmost transparency in the entire process”, said Albert Mabuyaku, Corporate Affairs Manager, Total Nigeria Plc.
The final selection phase will end by March 15, 2016 and an official ceremony to announce the results and to award the prizes will take place on May 1, 2016 and will end the contest.
The first winner will get N6 million while the second and third winners will go with N4 million and N2 million respectively.
While lauding Total Group for initiating the challenge, Adesuwa Onyenokwe, a jury member and publisher of Today’s Woman believes that beyond the benefit of the cash prizes for the winners, “it is also an endorsement that showcases and brings additional credibility these young business people.”
The financial supports awarded to winners are non-transferable and cannot be used for another purpose other than financing of the project. The full amount of the prize is exclusively intended to finance the entrepreneurial process; one third of the prize goes to support and the remaining two third left at the actual creation of the business within a maximum period of 6 months.
A strategic advantage is the use over 500 service stations, which make up Nigeria’s largest retail network in the downstream sector, as a channel for the winning entrepreneurs.
The competition, a tangible contribution to Nigeria’s growth momentum, is open to all projects regardless of the type of business or activity