#AsoVillaDemoDay (AVDD) is a Federal Government entrepreneurship encouragement platform, not unlike the Goodluck Jonathan You Win initiative.

The You Win was launched in 2011 and is similar to the AVDD in the sense that both are initiatives by sitting administrations that get abandoned the moment power changes hands–a very Nigerian thing, you see.

But, the AVDD is a bit different. The initiative is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship, innovation, job creation and economic growth through the use of new and emerging technologies. And it is an event. Or it was. The grand finale held on the 1st of September where Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance.

The AVDD website promises that by this initiative, President Muhammadu Buhari is following through on his promise to pay attention to Nigerians and our ideas. This makes a lot of sense considering the initiatives of many of the shortlisted startups.

If we are being honest, this is exactly the kind of initiative that we need governments to invest in. By rewarding their industry and social enterprise, the Nigerian government has also been exposed to new ideas and fresh ways to tackle current issues faced by many in the country.

On the 23rd of June, the panelists sitting at the Landmark center in Lagos had to sort through the 100 ideas pitched in order to make a cut of 50. The fifty that that would later attend the Abuja event that held on the 28th July, showcasing their start-ups in an exhibition before investors and sponsors.

It was (and indeed remains) the kind of initiative needed if Nigeria truly is going to make good on the promise of diversification. Pitches covered ideas and solutions for technology, agriculture, communications, power, energy, fashion and entertainment and socio-economic development.

From the fifty start ups that exhibited their ideas, 30 finalists were selected to attend a 2-day Boot Camp at the Ventures Park in Abuja where they were inspired by industry players.

Announcing the 30 finalists, , Laolu Akande, spokesman of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said each applicant was assessed by a minimum of four judges and listed some of the criteria used to assess the applicants as: profitability, realistic revenue generation sources, value proposition to end users, compelling user experience, resource-intensiveness, and whether the idea was scalable.

The judges definitely did not have an enviable job. They ideas at this stage were all solid, to say the least.

There was Fresh Direct NG by Angel Adelaja, which is focused on manufacturing and providing cutting edge technologies that help Africans to compete on a commercial scale in agriculture.

Earlier this year, Angel had participated in a similar competition The Venture organized by Chivas Regal which finale held in New York.

Grit systems by Ifedayo Oladapo has been on the scene for a while. The company seeks to help households monitor their energy and power consumption patterns. Grit systems is already one of the start ups that benefits from Co-creation Hub’s impact investment programme.

Obi Brown’s Study Lab idea which aims to solve thousands of problems in math, Further Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics in a video format and make this video readily and easily accessible to consumers.

One Medical by Oladimeji Sofowora, Wole Ralph, Laolu Ojeniyi which is a connected health records platform complete with a patient and doctor database.

Emmanuel Okena’s Tracology, is a patent smart payment app for waste management. An app that will track fine defaulters as bar codes will be scanned to confirm who has paid dues, levies and rates.

This is even more interesting if you live in Lagos and have witnessed waste pick-up days where the trucks leave some bins behind. Tracology also got one of the NGN 3 million prizes awarded to the top three startups on the first of September.

Loui Auta of Ceders Seeds Foundation idea to build solar panels in strategic locations by disabled people.

Abubakar Gabar and Ahmed Gobir’s data capturing technology which uses radio frequency to Desmond Okoye’s Doctor’s NG, is a platform that has been designed so that users have free access to doctors and also book an appointment from the comfort of their homes.

Peter Agada’s C4ISR infrastructure designed as a surveillance and communication device for the military is definitely relevant in light of our current insecurity issues.

Dami Olokesusi’s Shuttlers NG enables professionals to access comfortable and efficient transportation to and from work using seat matching technology. Although, there are already the Jekalo and GoMyWay platforms providing similar solutions, anything reduce the number of vehicles causing traffic congestion in Lagos is always welcome. His was one of the three that were selected as the final three in Aso Rock on the 1st September.

While this is definitely not the only thing we demand from the Federal Government in terms of diversification and development of talents, it is something that will go up right up there alongside fighting corruption in Nigeria.

* The Buhari-led administration agreed to finance what is outstanding of the You Win initiative.