The Simeon Agu Prize

The Simeon Agu Prize 2021

An award for the best software
startup in Nigeria

Vote now

The award was instituted to keep alive the legacy of Engineer Simon Agu, the founding President of ISPON, to the software profession and industry in collaboration with the Agu family. Officially known as the Simon Agu Prize for Software Excellence, in recognition of the Best Software Entrepreneur of the year, the award is handed out yearly at the Nigeria Information Technology Merit Awards NITMA.

Engineer Simon Agu was a consumate software entrepreneur, he was the founder and chairman of Computer Industry Systems Associates (Nigeria) Limited which metamorphosed to Neptune Software, a foremost international software company growing from 3 to 100 professional staff. He contributed greatly to the recognition of the Nigerian software industry locally and internationally.

Three finalists

Three startups will be shortlisted from the pool of nominees

One winner

One startup will be adjudged winner from the finalists

250k Prize

Winner gets a cheque of two hundred and fifty thousand naira

The award will be based on the performance of the company in one calendar year; year in review for consideration of the award is September 2020 – September 2021. To select the winner of the award this year, the following procedure will be followed:

1

Nomination for eligible startups will be open on the website for one week. Anyone can nominate a startup of their choice but the startup must fulfil the criteria set.

2

At the expiration of the nomination period, the committee will commence vetting of nominated startups to verify that they meet the criteria set.

3

The top three startups from the vetting procedure will be shortlisted for the final stage and will be requested to submit their pitch deck highlighting the set criteria.

4

Online voting for the winner from the shortlisted startups will commence. Voters are eligible to only one vote; multiple votes will be nulled.

5

The winner will be adjudged by the committee from the total number of votes garnered as well as points earned from the pitch deck.

6

Announcement of the winner and presentation of the prize will be made at the Nigeria Information Technology Merit Awards 2021.

Nov 01, 2021

Nomination begins

for deserving startups that meet the requirements
Nov 08, 2021

Nomination ends

all entries will be collated and scrutinised
Nov 09, 2021

Vetting commences

panel of judges vet nominees and shortlist finalists
Nov 12, 2021

Voting begins

three finalists will be announced and voting for the winner begins
Nov 16, 2021

Voting ends

voting results are collated and added to results from pitch deck
Nov 18, 2021

Award presentation

winner is announced and prize presented at prize at NITMA '21

For startups to qualify for the Simon Agu Prize for Software Excellence, in recognition of the Best Software Entrepreneur of the year, the following criteria must be met:

 

Idea

What is the general idea behind the startup, how does it make the startup rank better than other solutions

Innovation

How innovative is the idea, how much of a disruption has it caused and what new trend has it led to

Impact

How much impact does the product startup have on the users, businesses and the industry (where applicable)

Business Model

How good is your business model, how do you identify customer problems and provide solutions to them

Funding

How has the company thrived financially, how much has the company raised, what is the turnover

Important Notice

Only startups in seed funding stage and haven't received any foreign funding are eligible

The Finalists

Acadasuite

A digital platform designed to innovate Education and Learning in Africa. It offers quality, affordable and accessible education to all learners without the underlying limitations (power supply, internet connectivity, physical classroom and learning contents). 
Learn more

Mobilecooks

Africa’s Uber for Chefs, an app that assists mid/high income earning busy professionals sustain maximum focus on their careers and businesses, while it takes off the stress of food preparation & doing utility chores by connecting them on the go instantly.
Learn more

Future Academy Africa

Africa’s leading UX design lab, a talent accelerator with her core focus on User Experience while raising technology leaders out of Africa in areas such as UX/Product Design, Mobile App Development, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.
Learn more

The Simeon Agu Prize 2021

Vote a deserving finalist for the prize now. Voting runs from the 12th - 16th November, 2021.
One email address is limited to one vote; multiple votes from one email address will be voided.

Voting is over! The winner will be announced at NITMA 2021 on November 18, 2021 and listed here afterwards.

© 2021 Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria