Team of undergraduates from Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria becomes the national champion of the 2022 National Competition Award organised by Enactus Nigeria, a foremost international non-profit organisation dedicated to youth leadership and enterprise development.
Team from Tai Solarin University of Education came second in the award category.
Despite the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) strike, in the last one year, Enactus team in Nigeria, made up of undergraduates of tertiary institutions from all backgrounds and disciplines, invested time and other resources to
develop and implement startup social enterprises with great potentials to empower individuals, transform communities, create job and wealth opportunities while improving the quality of life and standard of living of people in communities around the country.
Country director, Enactus Nigeria, Mr. Michael Ajayi posited that, “like all other national competitions preceding it, the Enactus Nigeria National Competition 2022 provided these resourceful and dynamic students (social innovators) the opportunity to showcase the impact of their efforts over the past one year to a panel of judges consisting of CEOs of top corporate organisations in Nigeria.”
He further stated that, “a total of 16 Enactus university teams participated in this exciting and energetic event that took place in three stages. The opening round and Semi-final round were held as virtual events between July 26th and 28th, 2022, while the final round was held as an in-person event attended by top executives, students, lecturers and dignitaries in Nigeria, in Lagos on August 30th, 2022.
“At the end of the three stages of the entrepreneurial competition, the Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria team with two most innovative and impactful social enterprises namely, PUP Industries and Tompa was adjudged the Enactus Nigeria National Champion 2022 and will be representing Nigeria at the prestigious international competition, Enactus World Cup, holding in San Juan, Puerto Rico between October 30th and November 2nd, 2022.”
Plastic Up-cycled Products (PUP) Industries is a social enterprise that tackles plastic waste in the immediate environment, in Kaduna State, in Nigeria and the world at large by upcycling plastics into higher value products such as first Nigerian made shoe polish, PUP polish and PUP board.
Tompa, on the other hand, converts fresh tomatoes into powdered form to tackle farmer’s losses due to farm insecurities, tomatoes wastage, draught, pests’ attacks and long-distance transportation in local communities such as Bomo and Samaru.
Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria team was also recognised at the event as the winner of the Team Ambassador Challenge for 2022.
According to lead, Special Projects and Communications, Enactus Nigeria, Janice Akpobaro,“This initiative was set to challenge Enactus student teams to show how excited they are about the Enactus Nigeria National Competition 2022, the Enactus programme, the impact on them and the Nigeria society at large by creating video skits which was shared on all Enactus Nigeria social media platforms to determine the video skit with the highest social media engagements.”
Six Enactus student teams namely, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Calabar, Babcock University, Tai Solarin University of Education, University of Uyo, and Bayero University Kano participated in this challenge and Enactus Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria won with over 10,000 social media engagements.
