The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) has announced the 2021 edition of the Simeon Agu Prize for the Best Software Entrepreneur of the Year.
Established in 2012 in collaboration with the family of Late Engr. Simeon Agu to keep alive his excellent contributions to the software profession and industry, the award is presented annually at the National Information Technology Merit Awards (NITMA), an event organised by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS).
The award is targeted at software startups to recognize their entrepreneurship as they build a fledgling software business.
This year’s award seeks to reward startups for work done between September 2020 and September 2021.
Consideration of the award would be made based on the following criteria:
- Idea: what is the general idea behind the startup, how good is it and how does it make the startup rank better than other existing solutions
- Innovation: how innovative is the idea, how much of a disruption has it caused and what new trend has it led to
- Impact: how much impact does it have on the users, businesses and the industry (where applicable)
- Business model: how good is the business model, how scalable is it
- Funding: how has the company thrived financially, how much has the company been able to raise and what was the financial turnover. Do note that for consideration, all investor funding must be local.
In selecting the winner of the award this year, there will be an open process where stakeholders in the industry can nominate a startup that deserves the award and has fulfilled the set criteria at https://thesimeonaguprize.ispon.tech. The panel of judges would shortlist three (3) finalists who would be voted for by the general public.
A combination of the number of votes garnered as well as points scored from the technical review of the startup by the judges would determine the winner.
Nomination begins on November 1, and ends November 8, 2021, while the panel of Judges will commence vetting of nominees and shortlisting the finalists on November 9. Voting for the three (3) finalists will run between November 12 and 16. Announcement of the winner and prize presentation will be at NITMA 2021 event on November 18. The winner will get a cheque of N250,000.
Engr. Simeon Agu, who the prize is instituted in honour of, was the founding President of ISPON. He started his career in information technology at Shell Petroleum Development Company in 1971 and later moved to the National Electric Power Authority in 1977 as Manager, Systems Development, where he eventually rose to the position of Director, Computer Services.
He was founder and Chairman of Computer Systems Associates (Nigeria) Limited which metamorphosed into Neptune Software Limited, a foremost international software outfit, growing it from 3 to over 100 staff with the headquarters in Great Britain and offices in Nigeria, India, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Simeon Agu was a distinguished IT practitioner, software industry pioneer, founding President of ISPON, Fellow of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and a member of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).
