Global Alliance Africa extends deadline for Nigerian AgriFood companies to apply for iX Challenge

Global Alliance Africa is a six-year project, funded by UK Aid, that aims to promote job creation, inclusive growth and poverty reduction through knowledge transfer, skills building and opportunities to support businesses and innovations that can deliver scalable impact.

Sophie West, Global Alliance Africa Regional Lead announced in a recent signed statement:

Investing in AgriFood is critical for both the nation’s economy and society as a whole. It is an integral part of the solutions necessary to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets and Nigeria’s Vision 2030 ambition to make Nigeria one of the top three most food-secure countries in Africa through the application of digital technologies and innovations.

The iX Challenge Programme is a quick route to access solutions from other sectors to solve those challenges. It will provide solution providers with an opportunity to partner with their UK counterpart to add value and benefit from internationally collaborative solutions.

Some of the identified challenges from the AgriFood sector include using technology to increase food productivity and production, identifying innovative approaches to deliver efficient vegetable production, reducing wastes and emissions in the environment.

Others are applying cost-effective solutions to identify or reduce counterfeit products and identifying supply chain solutions to reduce post-harvest waste of perishable goods.These topics are by no means exhaustive and we would welcome a discussion around issues your business might be facing that could potentially be solved by expertise from other sectors. With nearly 100 challenges delivered globally to date and over 850 applications, our team of experts will work with you to understand the issues you face and to score the challenge to help sell the opportunity to a diverse range of sectors.

Global Alliance Africa will allocate seed funding to the selected solution providers winners of the iX Challenge to help provide startup and SME ecosystem financial support to develop the identified solutions in partnership with specific challenge owner, as well as additional mentoring for projects moving into commercialisation.

The Challenge is targeted at large* Nigeria-based, Nigeria-registered companies in the AgriFood sector with an annual turnover of over N100 million and/or a workforce of over 50 employees. It is also aimed at companies that have a concrete industry challenge that would benefit from cross-sector solutions.

*”Large” above means a workforce size of over 50 employees and/or an annual turnover of over NGN 100 million.

To apply for the Challenge, contact natalie.withenshaw@iuk.ktn-uk.org.