Market Doctor, an innovative healthcare provider, beat nine other startps to emerged the overall winner of the Fideity Bank SME Funding competition – carting home N2 Million.
Market Doctor, a healthcare provider that sets up clinics around clustered markets in the country, emerged the winner due to profitability, viability and scalability of its business model.
Healthy Nellies, a food production firm and Greenhill Recycling, emerged first and second runners-up, respectively, and were rewarded with one million naira each.
An initial 12 finalists emerged from more than 2,500 applicants who went through a rigorous and intensive selection process conducted by the renowned accounting and consultancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
That the number was reduced to five after another round of assessment, as they were made to pitch to panel of judges during the SME Funding contest.
Other finalists were Adeyinka Tekenah of ‘Happy Coffee’ and Olalekan Afolayan of ‘PackMyLoad.com’ who smiled home with consolation prizes of N500,000 each.
The remaining seven shortlisted SMEs received N200,000 each.
Fidelity bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, said that Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) were paramount to the growth and development of the economy.
“MSMEs employ over 80 per cent of the country’s total 90.5 million labour force, contribute 48 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and constitute over 80 per cent of registered exporters in Nigeria,” Okonkwo said.
The event was organised by the bank to deepen conversation on funding by bringing together small business owners, model entrepreneurs and private equity firms, among others.