Budding entrepreneur wins Heritage Bank’s N5m Prize at “The Next Titan” Season-3

A budding entrepreneur with unique business idea of turning trashes into beautiful furniture, Mrs. Marvis Marshal-Idio has won the Heritage Bank’s sponsored entrepreneurial competition show, Next Titan Season 3.

The star prize is N5 million from Heritage Bank, which is the headline official sponsor of the competition and a brand new car from Coscharis Motors.

At the grand finale held, weekend in Lagos, four finalists: Ronald Ajiboye, a first class graduate of a Russian University who is into drones production, Mrs. Marvis Marshal-Idio emerged winner, Victoria Mamza, founder of Wangarau Foods was the 1st runner-up founder and Sunday Ewolabi of Naija Peanuts emerged as the 2nd runner-up.

Impressed by the commitment and tenacity shown by contestants in this year’s edition of The Next Titan, Nigeria’s Entrepreneurial Reality TV Show, Heritage Bank Limited has restated its commitment for the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. The bank said the scheme is a veritable platform through which the financial institution is propagating its campaign for youth empowerment programme in the country.

Mr. Ife Sekibo, the Managing Director of the bank, who was represented by Mrs. Ori Ogba, Divisional Head, SME & Retail, Heritage Bank; at the final of the Season 3 of The next Titan held in Lagos on Sunday, said he was satisfied with the degree of commitment shown by each contestant who participated in the competition.

Meanwhile, Sekibo said Heritage Bank instituted The Next Titan with a view to igniting the entrepreneurial spirit in the youth. His words: “At Heritage Bank, we have discovered that SMEs have a crucial role to play in nation building process anywhere in the world. This is why at Heritage Bank we shall not relent in our support for young entrepreneurs who have a clear projection of their future plans.”

He stated that that the bank’s participation the Next Titan TV Reality Show as lead sponsor is to reinforce the financial institution’s promise of supporting the sector and fighting unemployment in the country.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mide Kunle-Akinlaja, the Executive Producer of the Next Titan commended the bank for the support given to the reality show. “I want to thank the management of Heritage Bank, headed by the indefatigable and visionary entrepreneur, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, for sponsoring this innovative Show. Heritage Bank has been greatly visible in the area of making future leaders in Nigeria. We are indeed grateful to Heritage Bank for being the major sponsor of the Show”, he stated.

According to him, the basic objective of the scheme is to demystify entrepreneurship and present it as a viable career options to millions of young talented graduates especially in this era of unemployment ravaging the nation.

The Next Titan TV Reality Show is a 10-week programme designed to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians. The TV Reality Show gives an opportunity to young talented Nigerians who fall within the age bracket of 18-39 years with great, innovative and unbeatable business ideas, to compete against one another in real-life entrepreneurial challenges in a bid to ultimately win Five Million Naira and a Brand New Car to start their new business or to support their existing business.

The Season 3 auditions held in Abuja, Port-Harcourt, and Lagos with over 50,000 contestants participating.

The Next Titan is a global standard television platform aims at practically engineering entrepreneurship among Nigerian youths through identifying the best business minds and supporting their entrepreneurial acumen through financial and logistical assistance, informal training, knowledge and other requisite services needed to propel them into successful business personalities.

Tonye Cole, Co-Founder/MD, Sahara Group; Chris Parkes, Chairman/CEO, CPMS Africa; and Lilian Olubi, CEO, Primera Africa Securities Limited are the judges for the competition.

Iroghama Ogbeifun, a passionate and goal-getting entrepreneur was the winner of the Season One. Iroghama is from Edo State, Nigeria, and auditioned for The Next Titan in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Similarly, the winner of the Season Two is Davies Okeowo, who holds BSc in Accounting. Davies is from Agege, Lagos Nigeria.