MTN Nigeria seeds local SaaS winner in Kano pitch contest
MTN Nigeria has extended its youth-focused entrepreneurship initiative to Kano, deploying direct capital to early-stage ventures as part of a broader corporate strategy to integrate into the country’s emerging tech ecosystem.
MTN Nigeria brought its "The Gathering 100" initiative to Kano on Saturday, featuring a startup pitch competition that distributed a total of 5 million naira in direct funding to early-stage businesses. The telecom operator awarded 2.5 million naira to the overall winner, while the first and second runners-up received 1.5 million naira and 1 million naira respectively.
The grand prize was secured by Applicant, a three-month-old digital programme management platform. Co-founder Samiat Tamilola Yusuf stated the capital will be allocated toward product development, headcount expansion and marketing to scale the business across Nigeria.
Applicant operates as a business-to-business software-as-a-service provider. The platform allows organisations to manage applications, participant selection, attendance tracking, communication and impact reporting from a single dashboard. Yusuf noted that many organisations still rely on manual processes and disparate software to manage training and development programmes, creating operational inefficiencies that Applicant aims to resolve.
Despite being a nascent company, Applicant is already generating revenue through active projects. Securing early revenue is a critical milestone for any startup, and MTN’s direct financial injection provides non-dilutive capital that allows the founders to scale operations without immediately surrendering equity.
The Kano event follows previous editions in Lagos, Enugu and Aba. Abu Sufyan Aliyu, MTN’s Senior Manager for Sales in the North-East Region, framed the programme as a deliberate effort to bridge geographic and economic divides. By keeping activities free or heavily subsidised, MTN is lowering the barrier for founders outside the traditional commercial hubs to access investors and industry professionals.
For a major listed telecom, this represents a strategic investment in grassroots ecosystem building. The physical events are designed to complement an existing online community, ultimately connecting local founders with the investors and mentors needed to build commercial enterprises.
“The goal is to ensure authentic Nigerian stories are told by Nigerians themselves while creating a community where people can connect, collaborate and express themselves freely,” Aliyu said. The initiative merges an existing online network with physical gatherings to facilitate capital access for young innovators.
