Technology/Science
Lagos Supports 23 Innovators and Tech Startups with N100m Grant By Oluwasegun
THE LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT has awarded a total grant of N100 million to twentythree young innovators and tech firms to pursue various technology-driven innovations across the six pillars of the development agenda of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration. The recipients are the first set of beneficiaries to be picked to benefit from the N250 million seed capital earmarked, last year, as Research and Innovation Fund by the State Government. The awardees were selected through highly competitive process overseen by the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC) established in 2019 by Governor Sanwo-Olu, with the mandate to facilitate and encourage the development of innovative solutions to solve local problems, using cuttingedge technology. The Governor congratulated the successful awardees of the research funds, urging them to apply the grant judiciously and use it to transform their ideas into reality. Sanwo-Olu said his administration was born with the sole aim to solve contemporary challenges facing the State, stressing that the innovation 78
September-October 2020
grant was initiated with the objective to empower local innovators and thinkers with knowledge of context and peculiarities to create specific solutions for local challenges. He said: “Last December, we inaugurated the Research and Innovation Council with a seed fund of N250 million in demonstration of our commitment to transform Lagos into a 21st-century digital economy and Smart City. “The body has a mandate to facilitate investment in science research, innovation, and STEM education throughout the State, and to encourage the development of innovative solutions to problems, using cutting-edge technology. “We are here today to match our words with action, by handing out grants from the LASRIC’s Research and Innovation Fund to successful applicants. I congratulate all awardees and beneficiaries of our very first set. As a Government, we believe in each and every applicant’s capacity to create and scale up ideas that can proffer solutions to our current challenges. “We embarked on this unique project with the belief that local challenges are best solved by thinking that understands and appreciates local contexts and peculiarities. “We believe in Lagos-supported solutions for Lagos-specific challenges. With the presentation of the grants, the responsibility now firmly rests on the recipients’ shoulders to justify the opportunity.” Sanwo-Olu noted that science and technology remained key enablers to transform the socioeconomic destinies of cities, observing that any serious Government must give total commitment to application of technology and innovation to drive improve service delivery in transport management, healthcare, education, waste management, DAWN
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