2024 Startupper: TotalEnergies offers cash, support to 100 young entrepreneurs
Against the backdrop of TotalEnergies 100th anniversary, 100 young entrepreneurs stand to be rewarded with an award of N8,000,000.00 (Eight Million Naira) each, personalized support and a communication campaign to enhance their project's visibility for emerging the innovative winners of the company’s Startupper of the Year challenge.
The young men and women who win this special 2024/2025 edition of the Challenge are expected to emerge from 32 African Countries including Nigeria, with three winners per country. The company explained that it will support, and reward young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 living in Nigeria who have a business creation project or a startup under three years old, in any business sector.
The Managing Director, TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria PLC, Dr Samba Seye led the launch of the special edition of the “Startupper of the Year by TotalEnergies" Challenge at a press conference held on Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Lagos. He encouraged Nigerian youths to take advantage of the opportunity. He was accompanied by the General Manager, Country Services, Adesua Adewole; the Country Communications Manager, Dr Charles Ebereonwu and the CSR/ Sustainability Manager, TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria PLC, who shed light on the company’s objective for hosting the challenge and the participation process.
“A local jury comprised of experts, business leaders, startup ecosystem participants, local sustainability stakeholders and representatives from TotalEnergies Nigeria will select three winners.”
The challenge will feature three categories: the best entrepreneur in the
- “Inno Up” category; for the best entrepreneur
- “Cycle Up” for the best project relating to the circular economy and
- the “Power Up” category for the best project relating to sustainable, affordable energy.
According to the management, “Four additional projects in the Power Up category will be selected by an international jury. All project entries will be assessed against four criteria:
- Relevance to sustainable development challenges
- Innovation
- Feasibility and development potential
- Respect for gender equality and inclusion of women in the project.”
The company urged young ones, within the age bracket, looking for a new challenge to submit applications between April 30th and June 18, 2024, directly online at http://startupper.totalenergies.com.
The event also featured a testimonial by the winner of 2021/2022 Startupper of the Year Challenge in Nigeria: Best Startup under 3 Years: Nonso Opurum of Soso Care.
This Special 2024 edition follows three other successful editions held in 2016, 2019 and 2022. “In all, 365 winners - selected from among some 40,000 applications received-have been rewarded and supported worldwide since 2015,” the company noted.
Adewole further explained that the challenge reaffirms the commitment of TotalEnergies to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship and supporting the socio-economic development of African countries in which the Company is present.