Kano students win national entrepreneurship contest with AI farming platform

The Sunflower School team will represent Nigeria at the African Company of the Year Competition in South Africa after developing a mobile platform to help farmers detect crop diseases, access market prices, and connect with buyers.

Students from Sunflower School, Kano State, have won Junior Achievement Nigeria’s (JAN) 2026 National Company of the Year Competition with an artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to help farmers make better agricultural decisions.

Their innovation, AgroLens AI, is a free mobile platform that combines crop disease and pest detection, treatment recommendations, real-time market prices, connections to buyers and information on agricultural financing.

AgroLens AI supports English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Nigerian Pidgin. Its voice-enabled features are designed to make agricultural information more accessible to farmers with limited literacy or those who find speaking easier than typing.

The team’s victory was announced at the national competition and a youth entrepreneurship convening held in Lagos on Wednesday, 21 October, under the theme, “Augmenting Innovation: Equipping Nigeria’s Youth for Entrepreneurship and Livelihoods in a Changing Economy.”

New Era Company of Community Secondary School, Asokoro, Abuja, placed second, winning US$150, while Nexora International School Lagos came third with US$100. New Era also received an additional US$100 after winning the Best Corporate Social Responsibility Award.

The competition is part of JAN’s School-to-Work Educational Transition for Long-Term Youth Fulfilment (SET4LYF) programme, which equips girls with practical skills to pursue further education, entrepreneurship and employment.

Through activities including Ideathons, JA DEEP, and the JA Company Programme, participants gain experience developing business ideas, solving practical problems, and presenting products and services.

A report published by THISDAY highlighted the programme’s broader reach, saying SET4LYF reached more than 98,000 girls in its first two years. The initiative seeks to bridge the gap between classroom learning and opportunities beyond school.

Speaking at the event, Olaolu Akogun, acting executive director of Junior Achievement Nigeria, said young people needed practical skills to adapt to an economy increasingly shaped by technology.

“The young people we are equipping today cannot afford to be prepared only for the opportunities that existed yesterday. Technology is changing how we work, trade and create value. Our responsibility is to ensure that young Nigerians, especially girls, have the skills, confidence and practical experience to participate in and shape that changing economy,” Mr Akogun said.

He highlighted JAN’s partnerships with the National Youth Service Corps, the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities and state governments. He called for sustained collaboration to expand access to entrepreneurship education.

Aliyu Abdullahi, assistant director of education and youth development at the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, delivered the keynote address on behalf of the minister.

He called for an education system that prioritises practical competence and problem-solving alongside academic qualifications.

“Degrees alone are not enough. We must move young people from being consumers of digital technology to becoming creators, problem-solvers and innovators. Training must lead to opportunity, and opportunity must lead to livelihoods,” Mr Abdullahi said.

He advocated stronger collaboration among government, educators, and businesses to integrate entrepreneurship, apprenticeships, internships, and practical skills into learning.

He also stressed the importance of connecting youth development programmes to market access and emerging opportunities in the digital economy.

Beyond the main competition, Agrolens Technologies received the Product Innovation and Operational Excellence Award, presented by Food Concepts.

UOFAM Group of Companies from Unique Secondary School, Akure, won the Public Choice Award and US$50. Meanwhile, EcoFlame Innovation received the Excellence in Project Management and Execution Award from the Project Management Institute Nigeria.

Ezekiel Sekegh was named Outstanding Volunteer of the Year, while Isaac Egbe of Sunflower School received the Best Facilitator Award.

In a separate opportunity, 15 girls from participating schools were selected for a fully sponsored leadership training camp in Ghana scheduled for March 2027. Delta Air Lines is sponsoring the programme, which recognises leadership, teamwork, commitment and excellence.

Edwin Idoko, JAN’s Kano State programme officer, credited the state’s education authorities, volunteers and field officers with supporting the students’ achievement. He said the victory marked Kano State’s third consecutive year of success at the national competition.

The event also featured a panel discussion on bridging foundational learning with entrepreneurship and market access. Participants examined how mentoring, project management, disability inclusion and private-sector partnerships could help young people turn classroom learning into viable businesses.

The 2026 competition was supported by FirstBank Nigeria, the Project Management Institute Nigeria, Food Concepts and Nigerian Bottling Company.

Agrolens Technologies will now take its agricultural innovation to the continental competition in Cape Town, where it will represent Nigeria against student-led enterprises from other African countries.