A leading Nigerian youth-driven entrepreneurship and capacity building centre, SME100 has rewarded 25 young Nigerian Entrepreneurs under the age of 25 at a Ceremony in Lagos.

The award derives from a selection process in which organisations from different sectors, set up by young entrepreneurs under the age of 25 recorded impressive growth within two years of establishment.

The Executive Director of SME100, Charles Odii said that the awards recognize, celebrate and encourage some of Nigeria’s most innovative entrepreneurs under the age of 25.

He said: “The goal of this award is to stimulate an entrepreneurial culture among our youths. We identify young people doing phenomenal work across the country, shine the spotlight on them so that all others can see them, and aspire to set up businesses as well.”

Odii stressed that the SME100 scheme is a social enterprise that helps to bridge the gap for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to succeed by providing requisite skills and orientation to young entrepreneurs.

The selection of finalists had been whittled down to 100 from 3,500 nominees for the different categories of the award. The final 25 winners were decided by the organisation’s board of trustees based on set down criteria, including online voting. The nominees were selected for 25 different categories.

The award recipients included Gidado Yushau Shuaib of the Youths Digest for Media and Communication Category; Abiola Chris-Amusan of RingsNG for E-commerce; Chibuzo Aloizeuwa of ACE Palace Farms on Agriculture; Georgette Monnou for Creative Writing & Content Creation and Aliyu Abubakar of QuickShake for Food.

Buogo Obi received recognition for contribution to Environment/Housing; Maryam Laushi for Active Citizenry & Engagement and Garos Bot for Beauty & Makeup.

Other winners are: Stephanie Eze of Mintville for Professional Services; Precious Obiako of Spotlight Skincare for Health and Skincare, Joshua Chibueze of PiggyBanking for Finance & Fintech; Sikemi Ifederu of Tambollo for Tourism and Hospitality; Natalie Obi of Ethereal Olores for Manufacturing &Logistics.

The list also has Jekein Lato-Unah for Art and Culture; Chinyere Uzuh for Event Planning; Omozino Eguh on Education; Georgia Oboh for Sports; Jennifer Uchendu of Susty Vibes for Energy & Sustainability; Afrotech Girls for Cyber Security.

Other young award winners included Tuke Morgan recognised for contributions to Music; Zayyad Nasidi on Social Entrepreneurship; Omimi Okere for Software & Design and Rotimi Okungbaye for Photography.

One of the recipients, Gidado Shuaib, who is currently covering Hajj operation in Saudia Arabia for PRNigeria commended the organisers for finding them worthy of the recognitions. Gidado Shuaib is a graduate of Mass Communication from Baze University and completed a Masters Degree in Campaigning and Social Changes from the University of Westminster.