Sterling Bank, Nigeria’s leading commercial and technology savvy bank, has announced plans to invest in the entrepreneurship dreams of young Nigerians by awarding a Sterling Heart Fellowship at the Founder Institute Lagos Core program.
The Sterling Heart Fellowship, valued at $1,000 will enable 5 young founders of tech and tech-enabled startups to attend the Founder Institute program in Lagos annually.
Founder Institute is the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator with headquarters in Silicon Valley. This award as the name implies HEART (Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Transportation) will recognize founders whose businesses employ innovative solutions to tackle challenges in the aforementioned sectors.
These sectors represent areas where Sterling bank is focusing its investments on. Head, Business Growth and Partnerships at Sterling Bank, Mr. David Adebayo disclosed this in a statement while acknowledging that the forthcoming awards include founders who applied through the Founder Institute Lagos application link and whose businesses align with the Sterling HEART Fellowship guidelines.
Speaking on eligibility, Adebayo said that a founder’s business must fall within the HEART Sectors and the founder must have taken the Entrepreneurship DNA assessment test and made it to the “Accepted” category to be eligible for the award.
He further said all founders who meet the preceding requirements are ranked according to their performances and the best from each of the sectors will be offered a Sterling Bank Fellowship to attend the Founder Institute Lagos Pre-Seed Accelerator Program.
Adebayo added that under the Accelerator Program, Founder Institute Lagos will focus on helping tech or tech-enabled businesses at the idea and pre-seed stages, including both solo-founders and teams, adding that this includes established businesses that are at pre-funding, prototype, and minimum viable product stages as well as part-time founders with just ideas.
On the entrepreneur DNA test which is included in the assessment, Managing Director for the Founder Institute Lagos, Ifedy Eze said that Founder Institute is serious about its belief that “Great Companies Start with Great People.”
According to him, the organization has been working with leading social scientists since 2009 to develop a test that identifies people with the raw skills and personality traits conducive to entrepreneurship.
Founders interested in the Sterling Bank HEART Fellowship can apply here.
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