Omoalata Foods Services, a Nigerian food service and packaging company, won $10,000 (N1.97m) cash prize out of six finalists in the annual entrepreneur showcase organised by She Leads Africa.
In the second edition of the competition in Lagos, the six entrepreneurs showcased their businesses in the presence of potential investors and panel of judges, after receiving guidance and support from experienced young professionals in venture capital, finance and business development.
Heat Free Hair founded by Ngozi Opara emerged as the second runner-up, going home with $1,000 (N197,000) while KamoKini, an African swimwear and accessories brand founded by Kambili Ofili-Okonkwo was the first runner-up and won $5,000 (N985,000).
Commenting on the competition, the Co-founder, She Leads Africa, Afua Osei, stated that the six finalists were selected from 400 applications received from motherland moguls in over 30 African countries.
She said, “My partner, Yasmin Belo-Osagie and I are actually working at the same company and we discovered that many young women needed this kind of support and better understanding of how to set up a business. We are providing young women with the resources they need to grow or start a business.”
“The winner last year went to be named by the United Nations foundation as the ‘A Woman to Watch’ and got about $200,000 (N39.4m) for her business. She was able to hire new staff from the money she got from the programme.
“We encourage all the young women who work with us to take advantage of this opportunity to make the right connections and attract investors who will support them.”
Additional prizes that the winners benefitted from are marketing consultation and support from Etisalat Nigeria; professionally designed investor pitch deck; branding consultation with Ellae Creative; marketing and promotion on the Guarantee Trust Bank marketplace and international media coverage among others.
The Principal Partner, Omoalata Foods, Kasope Ladipo-Ajayi, said, “I am grateful. Everything was not what I thought of, I am so happy. I have been doing this for about three years and I have been preparing for this since I started. For the pitch itself, I started preparing three months ago.
“The next thing is that you will see Omoalata products everywhere because we already had the idea and we needed support from people. And I hope the product will be in your house very soon.”