The Federal government has gifted an Abia State innovator N100 million prize after emerging overall winner in an innovation initiative.
This is coming after the government’s intensified effort to strengthen Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem and promote the commercialization of homegrown technologies, with more than 3,500 young Nigerians reached through a nationwide innovation initiative.
The initiative, driven by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) in partnership with AfriLabs, culminated in the 2026 InnovateNaija Final Pitch Event and Awards Ceremony in Abuja, where 15 national finalists were recognised and Adaeze Ruth Akpagbula, co-founder of Farm Speak and developer of the PenKeep Smart Poultry Climate Control System, won the top prize for an innovation designed to help farmers manage climate-related challenges in poultry, aquaculture, greenhouse and smart irrigation systems.
Representing President Bola Tinubu at the ceremony, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr. Kingsley Udeh, said the quality of innovations showcased by young Nigerians demonstrate the depth of talent available across the country.
Udeh said the administration is 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.
He said commercialisation would enable innovators and researchers to generate revenue from their work while contributing to economic growth, job creation and improved livelihoods.
The minister also disclosed that President Tinubu has 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.
Udeh said the administration also wants Nigerian-made products to compete on the basis of quality, urging Nigerians to 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 the partnership between NASENI and AfriLabs, which has expanded 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 is 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.
According to her, both programmes have reached more than 3,500 young Nigerians across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with innovations spanning agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy, healthcare, education and climate technology.
She said the initiative is particularly important because Nigeria continues to rely heavily on imported technologies, many of which might not adequately reflect the country’s infrastructure, electricity supply, climate, languages, cultural realities and purchasing power.
Madu said the programmes are, therefore, designed to identify Nigerians already developing solutions in classrooms, workshops and laboratories and create pathways for their innovations to receive support and reach the market.
InnovateNaija produced 36 state champions, with each initially receiving N2.5 million, while the top three national solutions received N100 million, N30 million and N20 million respectively.
The governors of Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Plateau and Kaduna states further demonstrate support for the initiative by matching the N2.5 million grants given to their respective state champions, increasing the support to N5 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 identified funding, infrastructure and electricity as some of the major challenges facing hardware innovators in Nigeria.
Akpagbula said the N100 million prize would enable the company to 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 focused on creating opportunities for Nigerian innovators to develop scalable solutions and take them closer to the marketplace.
Halilu said NASENI is 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 totaling N140 million, while three Intra-Agency winners received N22.5 million in cash prizes.
The Head of the NASENI Innovation Hub, Busola Perez Folayan, said the agency is deliberately taking its innovation programmes beyond established technology centres to identify talents at the grassroots.
- Media Report