Agro-allied company Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC has announced the call for entries for the fourth edition of its FMN Prize for Innovation.

In a statement on Thursday, the company said the focus for this season will be livestock farming under the theme ‘Innovative Practices in Livestock Farming in Nigeria,’ thus highlighting its commitment to promoting sustainable solutions that can transform the country’s livestock space and drive long-term economic growth.

The maiden edition of the FMN Prize for Innovation took place in 2021, an initiative designed to build a sustainable food system in Nigeria. The past three editions explored relevant themes that spotlighted innovative businesses and SMEs within the food and agro-allied space.

Entries for the fourth season of the FMN PFI started on January 24, 2025, and are set to close on February 28, 2025, after a two-week extension.

With this year’s theme, FMN aims to support innovative solutions that can overcome impediments to the attainment of long-term growth in livestock farming in Nigeria, thereby strengthening the livestock value chain and improving productivity across the sector.

Livestock farming plays a crucial role in Nigeria’s food security and economic development but continues to face challenges such as disease outbreaks, poor farm practices, limited access to modern technologies, etc.

FMN, through the PFI, seeks to bring to the fore innovative practices that can provide viable solutions to these existing and emerging challenges.

“Through the FMN Prize for Innovation, the company continues to champion Nigeria’s food security agenda. Since inception in 2021, we have nurtured and financially supported about eight businesses whose scale-up is over 50 per cent based on the invaluable support and resources provided to them by the company. Through our consistent actions and investments in Nigeria, we have demonstrated our unwavering commitment to local content development to reduce the nation’s dependency on imported raw materials,” said the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of FMN, Mr Boye Olusanya.

Also speaking on the sustainability of the initiative, Group Director, Strategy and Stakeholder Relations, FMN, Mr. Sadiq Usman, stated, “The sustenance of the FMN Prize for Innovation is premised on the process and the passion of the team that manages the process. Over the years, we have established a growth-driven process that ensures that we don’t just provide financial support for the winners of the prize but also provide them with insights and mentorship that ensure that they effectively utilise the funds for their business to scale up. More so, by associating with the brand, they also have access to a platform that gives their products/services a certain level of credibility that attracts investors, a reward that some of our past winners testified to.”

The competition is in two categories: one for Nigerian SMEs in the agro-allied sector, with practicable, scalable innovations in livestock farming, and the second is for students, which encourages them to propose bold, forward-thinking ideas on innovations in livestock farming. A panel of distinguished judges from the agriculture and investment sectors will select the winners. Substantial cash prizes ranging from N5m for the top SME to N3m and N2m for the first and second runners-up, respectively. In the student category, winning ideas receive financial support of N300,000, N200,000, and N100,000 for the winner, first and second runners-up, respectively.

Winning participants also get the opportunity for a one-year mentorship and industry exposure to help scale their projects.