MTN Nigeria’s ARDIC Presents The Spectacular Six!

The first-ever pitch for MTN Nigeria’s Academic Research Development and Innovation Challenge (ARDIC) on Thursday, November 28, gave us the next set of superhumans – the ‘Spectacular Six’ for the next one year-ish.

The pitch went down at the Nile University, Abuja, where 14 super-smart post-graduate students gathered to give their best before an independent panel of experts. 

The panel was made up of great minds like Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, the founder of First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics; Dr. Bolanle Oladejo, a Computer Science Don from the University of Ibadan; and Alessia Balducci, the Country Director, Seedstars.

After a painstaking selection process, the judges announced the best six who went home with a whooping sum of 1 million naira each as well as a six-month incubation period to help further their research into an implementation phase.

You know what they say about all work and no play? Well we don’t, because later that day, we had an amazing time at the launch ceremony of ARDIC at the Merrymakers Event Centre, Abuja.

Olubayo Adekanmbi, Chief Transformation Officer, MTN Nigeria; Bernard Ewah, Deputy Director at NITDA; Alh. Mohammed Babajika, Director, Policy Competition and Economic Analysis, were some of the dignitaries who witnessed a glimpse of what ARDIC had for Nigeria’s future.

It should be interesting to see what the spectacular six will achieve in six months!