A Catering teacher at the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, Enugu, Mrs Chinyere Oluchukwu Osuji has won the 2026 edition of the MTN’s Pitch-a-ton competition.

Osuji’s wheat-legume-based products combined with composite floor to generate gluten free cookies won the competition that had over 100 applicants.

Osuji, who is the founder of Vellas Global Nutrition Ltd won N2.5 million from the communication giants, while Werxio founded by Donatus Prince won the second position and garnered N1.5 million and Whipcare Company secured the third position and received N1 million.

MTN’s Regional General Manager (Sales), Callima Inino stated that the Pitch-a-ton was part of the “Live it 100 Campaign”, designed to empower Nigerian youths to live their best lives and support their business ideas

“So the overall idea is to say we want to encourage youths to live their best life, to live to 100, to have fuller expressions of themselves. So that is the moral idea. We are gathered here today to have several expressions of that idea over what we are saying the Nigerian youth should do.

“You can be a photographer, you can also be, let’s say, a makeup artist, or you are a tool tech, or you are building, you are welding, that you can have multiple expressions. So that is a moral idea to say we can live your best, don’t allow society to box you to say this is how you should do, this is how you should dress, this is how you should speak, you should have multiple expressions”, he said

Represented by Peter Kajovo, Inino disclosed that there were 100 submissions for the competition from where 10 entries were picked to present their business ideas or existing businesses, adding that the Company would continue to support Nigerian youths.

Speaking about her entry, Osuji, said her company is an agro-innovative food processing company that is committed to closing the nutritional gap in baked floor foods and related products using indigenous legumes grown on the Nigerian soil.

She stated that legumes based okpa, akidi, uzu aki, fiofio and ukwa are healthy food commodities that are commonly readily available within the country, regreting however that, they had been underutilised.

“So we researched and started working with it for over 8 to 9 years of research. We’ve come up with this six-stage processing protocol formula that has developed these products and make them shelf-stable, offering consumers optimal nutrition in simplified form, providing healthier alternatives to conventional baked products from the Nigerian market”, she explained

She stated that in Nigeria malnutrition is a looming crisis, because major products consumed in Nigeria such as biscuits, bread, noodles, pasta is floor-based.

She also attributed the rate of infertility among men and women to the consumption of highly processed imported foods, lamenting that legumes which are for healthy living are wasting in Nigeria.

She said that the prize money from the MTN would help her scale up her research which includes growing legumes in large scale in the next 20 years in the country.