Nigeria’s Hubpharm Africa and Services has emerged the winner of the second edition of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Startup Awards, beating other emerging businesses from across the sub-region to claim the $30,000 top prize.
The victory came as ECOWAS moved to deepen its intervention in the region’s growing startup ecosystem, unveiling a Private Sector Academy to provide entrepreneurs with business knowledge and practical training while announcing plans to increase the competition’s first prize to $50,000.
Hubpharm, led by its Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tope Kareem, emerged ahead of Senegal’s Gaynako and Côte d’Ivoire’s myOpinion, in a competition designed to identify and encourage innovative businesses capable of contributing to economic development across West Africa.
Gaynako, led by Pape Natango Mbaye, emerged first runner-up and received $20,000, while myOpinion, founded and led by Steve Bah Blesson, took the second runner-up position with a $15,000 prize.
The awards have given fresh impetus to the growing push by the regional bloc to position entrepreneurship and innovation as engines of economic growth, job creation and private-sector development at a time when businesses across West Africa continue to grapple with access to finance, skills, markets and the capacity to scale.
Speaking at the event, ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Dehpue Yenpea Zuo, said the Commission was seeking approval to raise the first prize from $30,000 to $50,000, arguing that a bigger reward would make the competition more attractive and competitive.
“As a first priority, I am going to the management to actually get the permission to now increase the award amount, from $30,000 to $50,000, so that it will become more attractive and competitive,” Zuo said.
The Commissioner also announced that the Startup Awards would now become an annual event, institutionalising a platform that began with its first edition in 2021 for recognising and supporting promising entrepreneurs in the region.
The new Private Sector Academy, unveiled by the Commission alongside the awards, is expected to complement the financial incentives by equipping emerging entrepreneurs with information, training and practical knowledge required to establish, manage and expand sustainable businesses.
The move reflects an emerging recognition within the region that access to startup funding alone may not be sufficient to turn promising ideas into sustainable enterprises, particularly where entrepreneurs face gaps in management capacity, market access and business development skills.
Zuo challenged the participating entrepreneurs to look beyond the immediate financial rewards of the competition and see themselves as leaders capable of creating impact within their communities and beyond national borders.
He urged them to draw inspiration from African entrepreneurs who began on a small scale and eventually built businesses with regional and global footprints, citing Aliko Dangote as an example.
The Commissioner said the entrepreneurs should not see themselves merely as business innovators, but as people who had taken a decision to create change and make a wider impact.
The message comes against the backdrop of growing efforts across Africa to harness the continent’s youthful population and expanding entrepreneurial base as a source of jobs, innovation and economic diversification.
For ECOWAS, the challenge extends beyond identifying promising startups. The regional bloc must also create conditions that enable such businesses to survive, expand into neighbouring markets and contribute meaningfully to production, employment and regional trade.
This is particularly important within the ECOWAS market, where businesses face different national regulatory environments, financing constraints, infrastructure gaps and barriers to expanding operations across borders.
The Commission’s decision to combine the Startup Awards with a dedicated Private Sector Academy therefore represents a broader attempt to move beyond recognising entrepreneurs to building their capacity for sustained growth.
Hubpharm’s victory gives Nigeria a strong foothold in that emerging regional ecosystem, while the proposed increase of the top prize to $50,000 could raise the stakes for future editions of the competition.
With the awards now set to become an annual event, and the Private Sector Academy providing a new capacity-building platform, ECOWAS is seeking to turn the initiative into a sustained pipeline for identifying, supporting startups.
