ISPON Opens 2021 Entry for Simeon Agu Prize for Software Entrepreneur

Emma Okonji
The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), has announced the 2021 edition of the Simeon Agu Prize for the Best Software Entrepreneur of the Year.

Established in 2012 in collaboration with the family of Late Simeon Agu to keep alive his excellent contributions to the software profession and industry, the award is presented annually at the National Information Technology Merit Awards (NITMA), of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS).

The award is targeted at software startups to recognize their entrepreneurship as they build a fledgling software business. This year’s award seeks to reward startups for work done from September 2020 – September 2021.

According to the organisers, the consideration of this year’s award would be made based on certain criteria, which include: Idea, Impact, Business Model and Finding.

For the idea criterion, the organisers will be looking at the general idea behind the startup, how good is it and how does it make the startup rank better than other existing solutions.

For innovation, they will look at how innovative is the idea, how much of a disruption has it caused and what new trend has it led to For impact, the organisers will consider how much impact does it have on the users, businesses and the industry, where applicable.

For the business model, they will consider how good is the business model, how scalable is it.

In the area of funding, the organisers will look at how has the company thrived financially, how much has the company been able to raise and what was the financial turnover. Do note that for consideration, all investor funding must be local.

Per selection of the winner of the award this year, the organisers said there would be an open process where people could nominate a startup that they feel deserves the award and has fulfilled the set criteria.

The panel of judges would shortlist three finalists who would be voted for by the general public. A combination of number of votes garnered as well as points scored from the technical review of the startup by the judges would determine the winner, the organisers said.