Ikechukwu Umezurumba and Dominic Nwaogu Listed among 2020 ITU Innovation Challenge Winners

Ikechukwu Umezurumba and Dominic Nwaogu Listed among 2020 ITU Innovation Challenge Winners

Two Nigerian business innovators, Ikechukwu Umezurumba and Dominic Nwaogu have been listed among the 20 winners of the 2020 International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) Innovation Challenge.

In a statement made by the union, titled ‘ITU 2020 Global Innovation Forum highlights the importance of entrepreneurship-driven innovation in the context of a global pandemic,’ the Nigerians alongside other innovators were awarded at the 2020 edition of the ITU Global Innovation Forum held virtually. 

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The statement further disclosed that the seven winning projects from the winners were pitched to a Global audience of experts.

Awards were presented to twelve women and eight men across three challenge categories – the Digital Change-Maker, Ecosystem Best Practice and Women in Technology.

In the Digital Change-Maker challenge category, winners were Tafadzwa Chikwereti (Zimbabwe), Carlos Reyes (United States), Mojca Rehar (France), Ikechukwu Umezurumba (Nigeria), James Gachara Kiruri (Kenya), and Thomas Müller (South Africa).

In the category of the ecosystem best practice challenge, the winners included: Dominic Nwaogu (Nigeria), Diana Artiom (Moldova), Nahel Amirah (Egypt), Ivana Kostic (Serbia), Galina Dremova (Russia), Wilda Romadona (Indonesia), Laila Al Hadhrami (Oman), Zainab Khan (Pakistan), and Franca Vinci (Italy).

For the women in technology challenge category, the winners were: Nindya Pasaribu (Indonesia), Calister Simba (Tanzania), Achia Nila (Bangladesh), Rani Mutiarawati (Indonesia), and Nabuyuni Sankan (Kenya).

Speaking at the forum, ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao said that supporting entrepreneurship-driven innovation is highly important as innovations produce a change in the world. He also said,

“It creates jobs, economic growth, and new ways to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic. ICT innovators need access to the resources to take their ideas to market and access to well-developed broadband infrastructure.”

Winners of the 2020 challenges will attend a five-day global flagship ITU event to learn, network, innovate and scale up their ideas. This will be preceded by a virtual boot camp for winners to participate in capacity-building workshops, refine their proposals with mentors and develop success stories of their projects.

The ITU innovations challenge focuses on empowering global communities to catalyze their digital development.