Wasiu Olanrewaju-Smart, the senior special assistant to the president on intergovernmental affairs, says STEM-driven startups hold the key and possess the capacity to solve challenges facing Africa.

Mr Olanrewaju-Smart, a Harvard scholar and policy fellow at Quantum Alliance AI, Cambridge, Massachusetts, disclosed this at the AfriVatech iResearch Fellowship Cohort One Grand Pitch for the top seven young research fellows from Nigeria.

A former Egyptian health minister, Halla Zaid, served as a judge with the presidential aide. The pitch, held via a Zoom webinar, brought together innovative young Nigerians who presented solutions to the continent’s problems through their research.

The programme, moderated by Moses Ojo and Adewale Aboderin, featured a rigorous, transparent evaluation of seven finalists, who were assessed on their technology-driven startup projects, particularly AI and machine learning.

The organisers’ criteria for contestants, drawn from major Nigerian universities, included problem identification and relevance, innovation and originality, impact potential, leadership identification, communication and clarity.

One of the contestants, Mercy Sado, presented a research project focused on solutions to the health risks posed by adulterated honey. She advocated the use of trusted harvesters, laboratory tests for approval, and the labelling of each bottle with a QR code and batch number to enable access to lab-test results.

Tife Kerry, another fellow whose research work was titled ‘Green Cycle: Organic Fertiliser Production’, spoke on a technology-driven solution that turns agricultural waste into safe fertiliser (as opposed to synthetic fertiliser), while improving public health and climate outcomes.

Mr Kerry, who noted that farmers wanted better yields, healthier soil and reduced input costs, said Nigeria generates millions of tonnes of organic waste annually.

While Sekinah Adegbite of the University of Ibadan pitched on ‘Closing the Loop: A Digital Continuity Model for Hypertension and Diabetes Care in Nigeria’. Aminat Adeshiyan presented a research work titled ‘BioSecured Futures’.

Boluwatife Balogun, who spoke about test strips in his research titled ‘Sentisense Africa’, described the work as a decoupled surveillance system and a real-time defence against superbugs, highlighting the challenges posed by global antimicrobial resistance.

While Tolulope Oladipo presented his research on “Deciding Resistance: A Multimodal AI Framework for Health Surveillance”, Winner Bakati presented “RedBarn Agrihub”, a research-driven, demonstration-led model for year-round vegetable production and household adoption.

Speaking after the presentations, Mr Olanrewaju-Smart commended the contestants for their innovative ideas and their quest to find African solutions to African problems.

After a brainstorming session between Ms Halla and Mr Olanrewaju-Smart, Ms Halla announced the top three performers, with Mr Kerry taking first position with 84 per cent, Ms Sado coming second with 67 per cent, and Mr Balogun coming third with 64.5 per cent.

(NAN)