Nigeria - Startup under 3 years old

Describe your project or startup in a few words

We help underserved youths to learn the application of mathematics and machine learning to gain work experience in automation, so that local industry can optimize green production through automation. We focus on new energy and Agriculture industry.

01.01 Describe your startup in more detail

Scibox is a startup that specializes in green supply chain and talent for industries. In Nigeria, traditional education meets limited industry need. These challenges have led to more than 80 million unemployed/unemployable youths and also caused Downtime in industries. Scibox is offering an improved learning solution that solves this problem, by helping people easily apply education to relevant industry need. Since lunch, 5 months ago, 3 schools and 71 underemployed youths have signed up on our learning platform. We have also produced an improved local made food processor for restaurant. Objective: by February 2025, we aim to improve school or vocation-to -work transition by 20%, by helping underserved youths better apply math and machine learning, as workplace adaptability skills to become industrial automation technician, so that local industries can have quality talent to produce more ecofriendly products. Revenue is projected to rise 1 by million dollars annually, within 3 years.

01.02 What is the main problem you are trying to solve?

We are trying to solve 2 main challenges, they are- ACUTE TALENT SHORTAGES OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION TECHNICIAN: More than ever, Local manufacturers are trying to digitize their manufacturing process, but it is very challenging to find and hire talent to help them solve daily automation challenges. This challenge has led to poor quality finishing, low production volume, downtime, raw material wastage that leaves many facilities at risk of shut down and also led to inability of local industries to compete globally. Ultimately, the overall economic growth of Nigeria could be hindered if this issue remains unaddressed. FAILURE OF YOUTH: to easily transit from traditional education or vocational skill to decent jobs. According to UNICEF, this challenge affects 75% of youth.

01.03 Tell us the major benefits and/or advantages of using the product/service that your startup provides (at least 3).

Within the next 5 months, it will help 100 youth in underserved area upskill and transition to better jobs, so that poor people will have easy access to decent jobs and equal opportunity In 4 months’, time, it will create 500 direct jobs by upskilling local people and support with equipment/ spares, as technician in providing affordable food processors for traders, so that more women can easily migrate from firewood to efficient ecofriendly equipment for drying fish. In six months’, time, our leaning solution and our local built robot (Kemute & Cairo) will inspire more than 2000 students in underserved schools to better apply math expression and machine learning in optimizing and calibrating automation equipment and parts -hence provide sustainable talent pool for Energy and Agric industry innovation. It will inspire women participation as data analyst in automation system facilities, from current 4-6% to 19%, so that mothers can earn higher pay to better meet their children need.

01.04 Please describe who exactly your startup’s product/service is aimed at serving. Who are the targeted beneficiaries?

Our target audience is male and female who are between 13-30 years. These people are student, who are in secondary schools, artisans and graduate that are based locally and are searching for quality learning and upskill solution for a better career. In the future, we would extend our target audience to personnel who are already working in industries.

01.05 When was your company established?

2022-07-20

01.06 Are you already selling your product/service?

Yes

01.07 How many other owners are there within your startup?

4

01.08 Among the other owners, how many are female?

2

01.09 Please describe the profile of the other owners within your startup (skills, experience, etc.)

(1) Brenda Adebayo -Female. She is a BSc holder - chemical engineering- University of Lagos. She has 4 years’ experience in food processing equipment and data management. (2) Patience Ikoi, Female. She is a BSc holder- Education, she has 6 years’ experience in environmental design and planning. She has 4 years’ experience in Education and fashion design. (3) Ajibola Temitope. Males. Bachelor of Engineering. He has 5 years’ experience in industrial mining & Engineering. He is a specialist in industrial data and equipment maintenance. He currently works as industrial mathematician and researcher. (4) Sam Ogheneyoma: Male. He has 6 years’ experience in industrial engineering and instrumentation and calibration. He is a specialist in programmable logic controller engineering for industrial equipment and parts.

01.10 If you have a website, a social media page (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin…), or app, please provide the link(s) here:

https://sciboxdepot.com

01.11 Which industry best describes your project?

c) Industry (equipment, commercial, logistical and professional services, transport)

02.01.01 My startup contributes to the No poverty goal

6

02.01.02 No poverty - Justification for my startup

Our solution will empower underserved youth with better skills to easily transition from traditional education to decent jobs, so that they can earn higher pay, thereby creating equal opportunities for more people to be able to afford basic needs: such as food, clean water or access to doctor. As such, more underserved youth will be empowered to rise above poverty.

02.02.01 My startup contributes to the Zero hunger goal

6

02.02.02 Zero hunger - Justification for my startup

We aim to support small scale farmers with technical talent and affordable energy efficient equipment to help improve storage capacities, through this practice, the cost of storage and perishable produce will be significantly reduced, so that farmers can produce more, earn more pay for their produce and have more produce to meet the need of consumers, regardless of season or out of season.

02.03.01 My startup contributes to the Good health and well-being goal

6

02.03.02 Good health and well-being - Justification for my startup

According to business day newspaper- 80% of Nigerian youth are unhappy and feel neglected by the society. SCIBOX solution will help more underserved youth to gain advanced employable skills and also provide supportive platform to enable people easily transition to higher paying jobs that afford them with needed resources to have basic access to health and quality nutrition to better improve the state of their wellbeing.

02.04.01 My startup contributes to the Quality education goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.04.02 Quality education - Justification for my startup

According to the May 8th 2024 report by UNICEF. stated that education system in Nigeria faces challenges in retention and transition, as a consequence, the prognosis for Nigeria’s economic growth and human development is poor. SCIBOX is offering cost effective and inclusive learning solution to help every youth easily supplement traditional education with industry learning, so that more underserved people will have opportunity to quality and affordable education that meet the changing need of today and tomorrow’s industry

02.05.01 My startup contributes to the Gender equality goal

6

02.05.02 Gender equality - Justification for my startup

The founders of our solution are 3 female and 2 males One of our focuses, as stated on our website is to foster and encourage the development of female participation as automation specialist personnel, from the current 4-6% to 38%, within 2 years. So that more underserved female can have opportunity to equal income and privileges.

02.06.01 My startup contributes to the Clean water and sanitation goal

5

02.06.02 Clean water and sanitation - Justification for my startup

According to the Greenpeace Africa report, Nigeria is one of Africa’s most polluted countries. Scibox solution will offer technical talent and affordable ecofriendly equipment to help people have easy access to clean drinking water while also providing social effort by promoting healthy environment in schools and neighborhood.

02.07.01 My startup contributes to the Affordable and clean energy goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.07.02 Affordable and clean energy - Justification for my startup

SCIBOX solution will help industries and small business have easy access to good energy services by providing better skilled talents to integrate existing equipment with digitized and renewable system that analyzes data to identify potential issues and fix them before they become problematic or cause a breakdown. Our trained talent will also help people to design and personalizes energy usage at home and offices, with a view to have information and control over their carbon foot print, our goal is to improve operational efficiency across industries by 12% . By using the least amount of energy to achieve the best operations.

02.08.01 My startup contributes to the Decent work and economic growth

7 - Strongly Agree

02.08.02 Decent work and economic growth - Justification for my startup

SCIBOX solution will afford more underserved youth with opportunity to easily transition from traditional education to decent work and earn decent pay. This system will also solve the problem of gender inequality and wage gap by helping women earn equal pay as men. While also providing better talent for industrial technological advancement, thereby improving local economy growth without hurting the environment.

02.09.01 My startup contributes to the Industry innovation and infrastructure

7 - Strongly Agree

02.09.02 Industry innovation and infrastructure - Justification for my startup

SCIBOX solution will accelerate the process of solving Nigeria’s infrastructure challenges by providing sustainable talent as industrial automation specialist to manage and improve infrastructure in Energy and Agriculture industry, so that local industries can easily access local talent to help foster local production incompliance with global standard on quality and safety for all consumers and environment.

02.10.01 My startup contributes to the Reduced inequalities goal

6

02.10.02 Reduced inequalities - Justification for my startup

Of the 3 schools where we are lunching our service, 2 of such schools are located in extreme low-income area. The goal is for us to offer equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of their gender, age or religion

02.11.01 My startup contributes to the Sustainable cities and communities goal

6

02.11.02 Sustainable cities and communities - Justification for my startup

Rapid urbanization and poverty are causing over 2 million people in my community to live in crowded Neighborhoods with poor infrastructure. SCIBOX solution on green automation careers will help to better improve the lives of these underserved people, by providing them with advanced skills for better paying jobs, so that they can have good quality of life and needed resources to improve the economy of their communities and environment.

02.12.01 My startup contributes to the Responsible consumption and production goal

6

02.12.02 Responsible consumption and production - Justification for my startup

There has been a lot of production and consumption in cities across Nigeria for the past 50 years. These have led to huge waste and Co2. SCIBOX solution is empowering people with the tools to implement and promote responsible consumption. Through our solution, we aim to cut food waste by 20% within 2years across specific local market. These will be achieved through our team of automated technician who will build very affordable and automated food processing equipment for wholesalers of fresh food produce in local market. The goal is to help traders reduce the use of firewood and coal to dry fishes and other food produce, SCIBOX aim to empower local people with easy, affordable and stress-free equipment so that local people can have responsible consumption and promote sustainability.

02.13.01 My startup contributes to the Climate action goal

5

02.13.02 Climate action - Justification for my startup

As SCIBOX solution commence the drive to develop more green talent as automated technician across communities, more homes, school and communities will become aware on how they can add value with their action to generate less carbon emission to save more lives and the climate.

02.14.01 My startup contributes to the Life below water goal

5

02.14.02 Life below water - Justification for my startup

Our trainees across communities and neighborhood will promote and protect under water life against pollution and poor waste management. We will also partner with other organization to campaign against excessive fishing that destroys and damages marine ecosystem.

02.15.01 My startup contributes to the Life on land goal

5

02.15.02 Life on land - Justification for my startup

SCIBOX solution will create awareness and inspire local to be willing to protect and preserve their environment against excessive logging, bush burning practice, open defecation not throwing waste along the roadsides we want to lead our community to start restoring the terrestrial habitat around their communities.

02.16.01 My startup contributes to the Peace Justice and Strong Institutions goal

1 - Strongly Disagree

02.16.02 Peace Justice and Strong Institutions- Justification for my startup

02.17.01 My startup contributes to the Partnerships for the goal

7 - Strongly Agree

02.17.02 Partnerships for the goal - Justification for my startup

SCIBOX aim to achieve all its goals by working together as one big team with industries, schools, communities, vocational centers and Government to help us build needed resources to improve the wellbeing of each and every Nigerian youth.

06.01 There are a large number of customers who already use a product/service very similar to the product/service we envision creating.

7 - Strongly Agree

06.02 The product/service represents an entirely new type of product/service.

6

06.03 The product/service could be described as a new technology.

4

06.04 The product/service is an improvement on an existing product or service.

6

06.05 The product/service could be described as an extension of a range of products or services.

2

06.06 The product/service responds to a demand or need that has not been satisfied by other products/services.

7 - Strongly Agree

06.07 The product/service is a new version of an old product/service.

1 - Strongly Disagree

06.08 Justification for my startup

There are a lot of customers who may already be using one learning solution or the other similar to ours. But Scibox learning solution is an improved experience that better address the pain point of youth, by helping users gain faster and better work experience than competitors. So that more people can easily gain employable skills for decent job and add more value to the changing need of local industries.

06.09 Competitive Analysis

Our main potential competitors are: EDTECH COMPANY- such as Ulesson, Pass.ng, passnow, Prep class. These competitors focus on teaching people how to pass exams. VOCATIONAL CENTERS- often focus on skills for menial jobs As a young lady growing up, I watched my graduate aunty took 6 years of her life to searched for a job. At that time the company I was, needed a research and development engineer- female, but after 1 year the company could not find the right candidate. Today, there are over 50 million youth in Nigeria who still couldn’t find the right support to transition to work. And so, what makes us stand out is that our business was borne out of necessity to provide a solution that others failed to offer, and driven by innovation and experienced team, we leverage on technology to better integrate industry challenges to traditional education so that more people can easily transition from education to decent jobs that better meet the adaptive needs of local industries.

11.05 Are you initiating actions within your community to promote the role of female entrepreneurs?

In my community, I use a room in my apartment to provide free fashion design training for disadvantage female, who are either single or married. I was motivated to start this program when more than two ladies approached me that they were being abused by their spouse and have no means of income to help themselves. I also provide free math’s study’s (Saturday’s only) for out of school female and their children at no cost.