Maryam Aliyu Wins ACEPHAP Maiden Pitch Competition ... Carts Home N3.5million
Maryam Nasiru Aliyu, a medical doctor has emerged as the overall winner of the ACEPHAP organized ptiching competition, and won acash prizeof N3.5 million.
The event took place on Tuesday, 23rd May, 2023 at the Mahmud Tukur Theatre, Old Campus, BUK. A total of 14 talented healthcare innovators pitch their ideas and at the end four teams emerged winners of the competition.
The ideas that won the competition are: OncoBiometrics: An Al-Powered breast cancer screening tool that uses finger printing dermatoglypics for cancer screening. It was presented by Maryam Nasiru Aliyu, a medical Doctor. She emerged the overall best and won a cash prize of N3.5 million. By that feat, Maryam became ACEPHAP INNOVATOR of the year.
The second prize went to the team that presented on Eco- friendly Reusable Menstrual Pad led by Amina Suleiman Rajah, a nurse. She won N2.5 million. The third position was captured by the team that made presentation on Digital Heart by Digital twin technology. It was anchored by Olugbenga Abejirin, an Information and Technology specialist. He won a prize of N2 million. KADSMED, a safe medicines disposal project presented by Basira Kankia Lawal, a pharmacist earned the 4th position and a cash prize of N1.5million.
Apart from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions, all the remaining 10 contestants took home consolation prizes of N250,000 cash each making a total of N12 million cash distributed as prizes.
Speaking earlier, the Director of the Centre, Professor Hadiza Galadanci said the essence of the competition was to identify young innovators and entrepreneurs with ideas on how to address the myriads of challenges facing the health sector and empower them to enable them convert their ideas into products that would benefit humanity.
She said ACEPHAP's main objective was to address health concerns of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3) which, according to her, are; promoting good nutrition in pregnant women and children, reducing maternal mortality, reducing child mortality and reducing maternal and child infectious diseases (malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV) with particular emphasis on increasing human resources for health and
Turning Research into Practice (TRP). Professor Galadanci also said postgraduate training, capacity building training and research are some of the major focus areas of the centre.
She said part of the reasons why the Centre organized the Healthcare Innovation Week was to build the capacity of health personnel on entrepreneurship and innovation by imparting on them the knowledge of not only doing business but succeeding in the ventures. It also organized Pitch competition among prospective young innovators. Pitching, she said, was to give the contestants a level playing ground to present their different innovative ideas in healthcare and at the end, a team of judges would listen
to them and select the contestants with the best idea and rewards them with cash prizes to enable them to use the cash to convert their ideas into product for the benefit of thesociety.
In his address earlier, the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee of the Healthcare Innovation Week, Dr. Ahmad Jameel Ismail had told the audience that the committee gave a level playing ground to all interested to participate in the pitch competition. The Committee invited applications from prospective innovators, saying that a total of 52 candidates applied and that after screening, only 14 scaled through and were eligible to participate in the contest. The pitching competition was the presentation of innovative ideas in healthcare by contestants, with a view to selecting contestants with the best idea and reward them with cash prizes to enable them to convert their ideas into product to benefit humanity.
