BUK centre splashes N7.5m to winners of maiden ‘AgriHacking’ competition

Bayero University Kano Centre for Dryland Agriculture (CDA) on Tuesday splashed seven and half million Naira to winners of its maiden AgriHacking competition.

The competition, according to the centre, was organised to participants as part of its core mandates of promoting agriculture in drylands of Africa.

They were awarded at the second open day for exhibition and awards presentation held at the centre’s premises in BUK on Tuesday.

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Each of the five winners who emerged from the competition went home with prizes ranging from N1m-N2m and will undergo mentorship and training to nurture their ideas into fruition.

According to the CDA Director, Professor Jibrin Muhammad Jibrin, the first and second winners of the competition are females.

He also said, “CDA was established to address the dryland challenges of Africa to have more prosperous people in the drylands of Africa, who are taking advantage of what they know to solve problems and also create wealth.

“Aside this competition, we have also awarded some of our outstanding staff who excelled in their various roles of making the centre functional,” he added.

Jibrin also said the centre is holding the second annual open day to interact and network with various stakeholders and showcase some of its modest achievements and get feedback on its various activities.

Also speaking, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas, commended the centre for its numerous breakthroughs and said it has made significant improvement in the areas of training and research.

According to the VC, who was represented by his Deputy, Management Services, Professor Mahmud Umar Sani, the centre has already positioned itself as Africa Centre of Excellence in Agriculture and has justified the World Bank grant given to it.

The centre was established by the university in 2012 and funded by the World Bank and the French Agency for Development (AFD) to promote academic excellence and regional integration in Africa, to address the training, research, and development needs peculiar to the drylands areas of West and Central Africa.