3 Nigerian Entrepreneurs Selected for Westerwelle Young Founders Programme 2020

The co-founder and Chief Operation Officer (COO) of ScholarX, Damilola Emuze and two other Nigerian entrepreneurs have been selected for the Westerwelle Young Founders Programme 2020.

The Entrepreneurs were among 12 African founders selected to participate in the next edition of the founders’ program.

Over 1,500 applicants applied for Westerwelle Young Founders Programme

The Westerwelle Young Founders Programme, run by the Westerwelle Foundation for International Understanding, is a six-month programme that aims to offer business mentoring to outstanding young entrepreneurs from developing and emerging countries.

The programme includes the Young Founders Conference which held in Berlin this week.

After the conference, the programme will continue remotely as the entrepreneurs will participate in monthly peer-mentoring calls held in smaller groups, along with monthly expert sessions and webinars.

Also, the founders will be given mentors whom they will be able to schedule regular calls with.

The 25 entrepreneurs participating in the programme this year were selected from about 1500 applications received.

The 3 Nigerian entrepreneurs include Damilola Emuze, co-founder and COO of ScholarX; Jide Ayegbusi, founder and CEO of Edusko.com; and Luther Lawoyin who is the founder and CEO of Pricepally.com.

Meet the 3 Nigerian Entrepreneur shortlisted for the program

Jide Ayegbusi is the founder and CEO of Edusko.com, an edtech startup based in Lagos. Established in 2016 by Ayegbusi, Edusko is a startup that helps African parents access suitable schools and financing to give their children access to quality education.

Edusko’s web-based application allows parents to compare good schools, and make informed decisions on their prefered choice of school. It also provides access to finance to pay for school fees.

Edusko was a finalist at the Seedstars World event in Lagos, Nigeria in 2019. it was also one of five startups selected by the Nigerian Economy Summit Group in 2017.

Damilola Emuze is the co-founder and COO of ScholarX, an edtech startup based in Lagos. Founded by Emuze in 2016, ScholarX creates better access to quality education for high potential youths in Africa irrespective of their socio-economic background.

ScholarX uses its education financing solutions to link students and youths global funding opportunities that ensure access to quality education.

ScholarX participated in Google Launchpad Accelerator Class 3 and was one of 6 Startups Selected to Pitch at the Stanford Africa Business Forum. It won the World Summit Award for Education in Nigeria in 2017.

Luther Lawoyin is the founder and CEO of Pricepally.com, an e-commerce company based in Lagos. Founded in 2019 by himself, Pricepally is an e-commerce platform that provides access to affordable, nutritious, traceable and secure food items.

The startup offers wholesale services that enables people to buy food in bulk. It also allows sharing of bulk food items with others online to leverage their collective bargaining power.

Pricepally participated in the French-German AyadaLab incubator and accelerator programme. It has also been part of the venture scaling bootcamp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.

Pricepally won Foodtech500 global company by Forward Fooding.

Other African countries represented in the Westerwelle Young Founders Programme include; Nambia, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya.

The foundation does not invest in businesses of the entrepreneurs that participate in the programme. However, they will provide them with relevant investment from its network if possible.