One year later, we have received $0.
First came the conditions. Then a missed payment date. Then "the sponsor withdrew." Then a payment plan from CERFODES Uganda itself.
@CERFODESGroup Every deadline has come and gone. Not a single dollar has reached our accounts💔💔💔.
In October 2025, our team at Nyota Innovations Limited won the GAIME 2025 Startup Battlefield in Kampala.
The competition was organized by CERFODES
@CERFODESGroup, hosted by
@Mizzflav, and held at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
We were handed a $75,000 equity-free prize cheque on stage. The organizers said the award had "no strings attached."
To be clear …..we began the way most university students in Uganda do. Late nights in our small rooms and computer labs. Group projects that gradually became real ideas. Side hustles to afford data and keep the laptop charged. The quiet hope that if we simply built something useful enough, someone would notice and help us take the next step.
We weren't special. We were just young people trying to turn what we learned in class into something that could solve real problems and maybe, one day, create jobs. Funding is the mountain every founder in this space must climb. So when the chance came to compete on a big stage the GAIME 2025 Startup Battlefield in Kampala ..we gave it everything.💔💔
We put in time we didn't really have. Money we had to scrape together for transport, prototypes, presentation materials, and looking professional enough to stand before investors and judges. We showed up ready to be the best version of ourselves