National Youth Service Corps Innovators Emerge from the IP Salaye Program with Market-ready Solutions to Help Meet the SDGs

Twenty-eight National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members who completed the first cohort of the WIPO Nigeria Intellectual Property Skills Acquisition, Learning and Youth Entrepreneurship (IP Salaye) program have emerged with market-ready solutions with the aim to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Since their selection in October 2023, the youth corps members have undergone comprehensive training in ideation and problem-solving, as well as business development  aiming to develop business solutions to address local challenges encountered in their service areas. Significantly, they received tailored IP and Business mentoring through the WIPO IP Management Clinic, supporting their quest to leverage IP for business growth . They have framed their respective solutions against the backdrop of the sustainable development goals.

The participants, who worked in five groups comprising 4-6 members each, presented their products to an audience of business and IP experts,  representatives of United Nations’ Agencies, other Youth Corps members and NYSC officials at the UN House in Abuja on Friday April 19, 2024.

The emergent products from the program are:

Team Aisha
Product Name: CULTIVVA
Focus SDG: SDG 9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure (Target 9.2 - Inclusive and sustainable industrialization)
Product overview: A first-in-the-market platform that enables farmers to buy genuine fertilizer directly from the manufacturers, also providing  offline export readiness training for farmers to purchase the export ready crops and sell to the export market.

Team Peter
Product name: AGROBATE
Focus SDG: SDG 1 - No Poverty
Product overview: Our product is an internet enabled community seed bank which provides access to improved seeds and seedlings to small holder farmers and the farming community.
We are as well offering value added services like weather information, market updates and agronomic training.

Team Mercy
Product name JAMMA
Focus SDG: SDG 4 - Quality education
Product overview: Personalized career counseling and mentorship for secondary school students
Developing an AI-algorithm designed to enhance career guidance by employing psychometric assessments to analyze personality traits, educational backgrounds, and current skill sets, in a bid to guide individuals towards well-suited vocations for optimal performance.

Team Evelyn
Product name Veelyn
Focus SDG: SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
Product overview: Veelyn is a market intelligence platform that monitors market trends, predict future prices, give farmers access to a wider market and also provide convenience for consumers to purchase fresh products.

Team peace
Product name: Homely
Focus SDG: SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and development (Target 11.1 – Safe and affordable housing)
Product overview: Homely is an affordable home rental platform that exclusively lists homes available for rent at a price of N2,000,000 per annum, or lower.