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Recently, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) launched the ambitious NASENI Innovation Hub (NIH), tailored to foster section innovations among talented youths and to thrust industrialization, make jobs, and trim reliance connected overseas products successful Nigeria.
The motorboat of the NASENI Innovation Hub is besides to enactment Nigerian innovators with mentorship and a constituent portion of it is the Innovate Naija Challenge, developed successful concern with AfriLabs, which aims to span the enactment spread for young innovators, assistance commercialize their technologies, and thrust Nigeria’s industrialization and economical growth.
The Innovate Naija Challenge keys into the improvement paradigm of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Tinubu medication to supply a supportive ecosystem for startups and innovators with infrastructure, mentorship, and funding.
Under the astute enactment of the NASENI Executive Vice Chairman (EVC/CEO), Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, the Innovate Naija Challenge is designed to spark a question of excitement and online engagement, portion identifying, empowering, and supporting innovative minds crossed Nigeria.
The InnovateNaija Challenge is simply a nationwide contention with a N250 cardinal prize excavation to enactment and observe youth-led solutions. It is billed to unlock and empower younker innovation crossed the country.
AfriLabs, a pan-African innovation network, teams up with NASENI to facilitate probe support, entree to backing networks, and a transportation to the marketplace to crook prototypes into viable businesses.
NASENI is besides collaborating with the DeltHer Expansion Programme, focused connected empowering women successful engineering and The FutureMakers Programme, aimed astatine nurturing young innovators with grants and mentorship arsenic good arsenic the NASENI Xceler8 program, which accelerates startups successful science, engineering, and manufacturing.
The main intent of the InnovateNaija Challenge is to trigger creativity and make a vibrant online buzz wrong the innovation ecosystem successful Nigeria to pull innovators that volition make caller ideas that springboard the state into industrialization.
By fostering an ambiance of affirmative vigor connected societal media, the run seeks to prosecute Nigerians successful a nationwide question to enactment and observe indigenous ideas and products.
Under the scheme, 37 state-level winners — 1 from each of Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT — volition beryllium selected done nationalist voting. Each volition person a N2.5 cardinal assistance to make their innovations.
The apical 15 volition advancement to the expansive finale astatine the NASENI Invention Fest successful Abuja, February 2026, wherever they volition transportation their solutions earlier adept judges and stakeholders with the wide victor walking distant with N100 cardinal successful funding.
The inaugural which officially kicked disconnected connected September 4, 2025, astatine the GITEX Nigeria 10x Stage, Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, offers invaluable backing opportunities to palmy winners, encouraging individuals from each walks of beingness to showcase their inventions oregon innovations done originative video submissions.
The Challenge is besides a level to prosecute the Nigerian nationalist for 3 months to showcase a divers scope of ideas from Nigerian innovators, fostering a vibrant assemblage of subject and manufacturing stakeholders crossed the country.
The Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NASENI, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, said the Challenge reflects the Agency’s committedness to creating an enabling situation for innovation to thrive.
He said “The InnovateNaija Challenge is an unthinkable opportunity, offering backing to 37 outstanding youths to bring their ideas to life. The NASENI Innovation Hub volition nurture these sparks into scalable solutions, advancing Nigeria’s technological capabilities.”
The Executive Director of AfriLabs, Anna Ekeledo, described the inaugural arsenic a boost to Africa’s innovation ecosystem, saying “by empowering innovators crossed each states successful Nigeria, this contention not lone fuels creativity but besides strengthens the innovation ecosystem. We are excited to enactment NASENI successful spotlighting Nigerian ingenuity.”
The NASENI Innovation hub is built to accelerate the improvement of section solutions, moving Nigeria from a user of overseas goods to a creator of worth arsenic good arsenic boost renewable energy, instrumentality tools, electronics, and others which volition assistance to physique a robust, non-oil-dependent economy.
The Hub has the imaginable of converting probe into commercialized products, often done tiny and mean enterprises (SMEs), designed to make skilled jobs and foster a sustainable mediate people thereby promoting the accumulation of “Made-In-Nigeria” goods, specified arsenic laptops and mobile devices.
The improvement of indigenous, technologically precocious products has the imaginable to unfastened up export...
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