The Federal Government has stepped up efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem and commercialise homegrown technology, with the Tinubu administration supporting a nationwide initiative that has reached more than 3,500 young Nigerians across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The initiative, driven through a partnership between the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and AfriLabs, culminated in the 2026 InnovateNaija Final Pitch Event and Awards Ceremony in Abuja, where 15 national finalists were recognised and an Abia State innovator emerged overall winner with a ₦100 million prize.
Adaeze Ruth Akpagbula, co-founder of Farm Speak and developer of the PenKeep Smart Poultry Climate Control System, won the top prize for her innovation designed to help farmers manage climate related challenges in poultry, aquaculture, greenhouse and smart irrigation systems.
Representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the ceremony, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, said the quality of innovations showcased by young Nigerians demonstrated the depth of talent available across the country.
Udeh said the administration was focused on ensuring that Nigerian innovations move beyond ideas and prototypes to the marketplace by connecting researchers and innovators with investors, industries and other stakeholders capable of supporting commercialisation.
According to him, commercialisation would enable innovators and researchers to generate revenue from their work while contributing to economic growth, job creation and improved livelihoods.
The minister disclosed that President Tinubu had forwarded a bill to the National Assembly seeking the establishment of a National Research and Innovation Development Fund to provide dedicated funding for research, inventions and innovations with commercial potential.
He said the administration also wanted Nigerian made products to compete on the basis of quality, stressing that Nigerians should patronise locally developed products because they meet required standards rather than solely out of patriotic considerations.
The government’s innovation drive is being complemented by NASENI’s partnership with AfriLabs, which has helped expand InnovateNaija beyond Nigeria’s major technology centres to communities across the country.
Speaking on behalf of AfriLabs, its Director of Programmes, Nanko Madu, said the organisation worked closely with NASENI to create a platform capable of identifying, supporting and celebrating innovators regardless of their location.
Madu said InnovateNaija was designed to provide young Nigerians aged 15 to 40 with mentorship, technical support, funding, market access and visibility, while FutureMakers targets younger innovators between five and 16 years.
She said both programmes had reached more than 3,500 young Nigerians across the 36 states and the FCT, with innovations spanning agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy, healthcare, education and climate technology.
According to Madu, the initiative was particularly important because Nigeria continues to rely heavily on imported technologies, many of which may not adequately reflect the country’s infrastructure, electricity supply, climate, languages, cultural realities and purchasing power.
She said the programmes were therefore designed to identify Nigerians already developing solutions in classrooms, workshops and laboratories and create pathways for those innovations to receive support and reach the market.
InnovateNaija produced 36 state champions, with each initially receiving ₦2.5 million, while the top three national solutions received ₦100 million, ₦30 million and ₦20 million respectively.
The governors of Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Plateau and Kaduna states further demonstrated support for the initiative by matching the ₦2.5 million grants given to their respective state champions, increasing the support to ₦5 million each.
For the overall winner, Akpagbula, the recognition represents an opportunity to expand a locally developed climate smart technology that she said could help reduce losses suffered by farmers.
The agricultural engineer, who co-founded Farm Speak with her husband, Kita Okoma, said farmers could lose a substantial portion of their produce because of climate related challenges, while technologies such as PenKeep could help them gain greater control over their production environment.
She said funding remained one of the major challenges facing hardware innovators in Nigeria, alongside infrastructure and electricity, adding that the ₦100 million prize would help the company expand its production capacity and reach more farmers.
At NASENI, the innovation drive has been anchored by the agency’s Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, who has been credited with creating opportunities for Nigerian innovators to develop scalable solutions and take them closer to the marketplace.
Halilu said NASENI was repositioning its research and development activities around Creation, Collaboration and Commercialisation, with the agency seeking to bridge the gap between research and the marketplace.
Under his leadership, NASENI has expanded opportunities for innovators, researchers and public servants to develop and showcase solutions to national challenges, while creating pathways for promising technologies to attract support and scale.
In addition to the InnovateNaija awards, NASENI presented prizes and development grants to winners of its Inter Agency and Intra Agency innovation competitions. Three Inter Agency winners received development grants totalling ₦140 million, while three Intra Agency winners received ₦22.5 million in cash prizes.
Head of the NASENI Innovation Hub, Busola Perez Folayan, said the agency was deliberately taking its innovation programmes beyond established technology centres to identify talents at the grassroots.
She said InnovateNaija received more than 1,000 applications before public voting produced 36 state winners and the final 15 national contestants.
Perez Folayan added that NASENI would continue supporting successful innovators through incubation, business development, technical assistance and investor matching to improve their prospects of commercialising their ideas.
The state level support has also strengthened the initiative. Anambra State’s Special Adviser to the Governor on Innovation and Business Incubation, Chinwe Okoli, said Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration immediately approved matching funds after NASENI approached the state.
Okoli said the intervention was consistent with the governor’s technology driven development agenda, disclosing that 111 startups had received about ₦364 million through various state programmes.
She added that 264,000 people had been trained in digital skills, while the state was developing a 13.7 hectare Solution Innovation District to provide space and support for startups, innovators and technology entrepreneurs.
The collaboration between the Federal Government, NASENI, AfriLabs and participating state governments underscores a broader effort to move Nigerian innovation from classrooms, workshops and laboratories into the marketplace, while creating funding, mentorship and commercial opportunities for the next generation of Nigerian technology and engineering entrepreneurs.
