Market Doctor, an innovative healthcare provider, has emerged the overall winner of the Fidelity Bank SME funding competition.
It won the bank’s N2 million prize.
The bank disclosed this on Saturday in a statement issued by its Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Ejike Ndiulo.
Ndiulo said 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.
He said 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.
Ndiulo said the number was reduced to five after another round of assessment, adding that they were made to pitch at a panel of judges during the SME Funding contest.
He said Healthy Nellies, a food production firm and Greenhill Recycling, emerged first and second runners-up, respectively, and were rewarded with N1 million each.
According to him, the other finalists are Adeyinka Tekenah of Happy Coffee and Olalekan Afolayan of PackMyLoad.com, who smiled home with consolation prizes of N500,000 each.
Ndiulo said the remaining seven shortlisted SMEs received N200,000 each.
According to him, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, said the 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,” Ndiulo quoted Okonkwo as saying.
Okonkwo was also quoted to have said that 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. (NAN)
