UI students qualify for $1m Hult prize competition

Students of the University of Ibadan have qualified for the quarter-final round of the Hult prize competition.

The competition, which is themed ‘Reawakening Human Potential: The Refugee Opportunity’, aims to build sustainable, scalable social enterprises that restore the rights and dignity of 10 million refugees by 2022.

The University of Ibadan will host the quarter-final stage, which it qualified for after scaling through the selection process, before going to Boston, San Francisco, London, Shanghai, or Dubai for the semi-final stage.

Winning at this level qualifies the institution to participate in the global finale to be held in New York by September 2017 where it would be competing for the grand prize of a million dollars.

About ten teams (3-4 students making a team) will have the opportunity to draw up a social business plan capable of solving the refugee challenges starting from their communities and Nigeria.

This year’s calendar starts October 1 and ends on December 14, 2016.

Hult prize in collaboration with Clinton Global Initiative hopes to guide student-generated startup enterprises to create value along the entire supply chain of services supporting refugees.

The idea is to work with student teams to find ways to support displaced people to remain connected with the past and unlocking the opportunities of the future.

Student teams competing in the Hult Prize 2017 challenge will be asked to reimagine the refugee crisis, and create new architectures of identity and belonging, relevant to the realities of the twenty-first century.