By our correspondent

The National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) on Wednesday said it is pursuing over $600 million in proposed investments to boost Nigeria’s innovation and clean-energy sectors.

Director-General, Dr Kazeem Kolawole Raji, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, while presenting outcomes of the NextGen Innovation Challenge 2026 held in London.

The challenge, organised with UKALD, held its grand finale on October 9 at ExCeL London, bringing together Nigerian innovators, investors, diplomats and development partners.

Raji said 298 innovators from the 36 states and FCT participated, up from 105 in 2025, to showcase homegrown technologies to global markets.

Innovations covered AI, robotics, agriculture, healthcare, education, renewable energy, telecoms, enterprise software, 3D printing and advanced manufacturing.

He said NBTI’s next focus is turning ideas into viable businesses that create jobs and address national challenges.

The proposed $600million portfolio comprises a $500million solar programme with Gigawatt Global to build solar farms in universities and polytechnics under Power Purchase Agreements.

It also includes $100million financing for the Tinubu Light Initiative under an MoU between NBTI and Financial Innovation for Impact, UK.

Raji clarified the figures are proposed investments, not funds received, as realization depends on due diligence, approvals and financing agreements.

He said the investments could boost renewable infrastructure and electricity access in tertiary institutions while advancing clean-energy goals.

Raji also unveiled the Tinubu Light Initiative, targeting one million micro and small businesses with solar solutions to cut energy costs.

The programme projects 10,000 field marketers, 50,000 direct youth jobs, N30billion blended financing in phase one and N12billion annual economic benefits.

He said beneficiaries include tailors, barbers, pharmacies, restaurants, retailers, POS operators and women and youth-led businesses.

In a boost for women-led innovation, Dubai investor Erin Grover pledged $100,000 for three women innovators to improve access to finance and mentorship.

Raji added that 16 innovators got international accelerator slots worth $10,000 each and Pre-MBA scholarships worth over £5,000 each, plus UK Global Talent Visa support, urging investors to back Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem with transparent, verifiable implementation.

By Our Correspondent

Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt.Hon.Tajudeen Abbas has said that the nation’s health challenges cannot be solved without a coordinated approach by all relevant stakeholders.

This happened as the House Committee on Infectious Diseases has held a public hearing to amend the National Agency for the Control of HIV AIDS Act Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 with a view to establish a trust fund for the control of these ailments

Speaking when he declared the hearing open, he said that our nation cannot realize it’s full potentials when preventable and treatable diseases continue to deprive it’s citizens of life, productivity and opportunity.

Represented by Hon Mansur Manusoro, he said that the protection of public health must therefore be understood not simply as a government responsibility, but as an investment in the lives, capabilities and future of our people.

The proposed amendment he informed is to examine whether our existing legislative and institutional framework is sufficiently responsive to the scale and interconnected nature of these challenges.

He added that the proposal is seeking to expand the mandate of the National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS the Bill raises important questions about coordination, administrative efficiency, resource mobilisation and accountability.

He harped on the need to examine how better coordination can reduce duplication, strengthen collaboration and ensure more effective use of scarce public resourexes noting that HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria have distinct patterns of transmission, prevention strategies and treatment requirements.

The Speaker insisted that every proposed institutional change must ultimately be judged by its impact on the health and well-being of Nigerians.

Earlier in an opening speech Chairman of the House Committee Hon.Amobi Godwin Ogah said that said that the health of the citizenry is an important issue that is not supposed to be left to chance.

He noted that Nigeria remains the country with the highest burden of infected persons with HIV/AIDS Malaria and Tuberculosis diseases

He harped on the need for to establish a trust find to tackle the issue of delay in funding of relevant agencies on charge of control of these diseases annually.

He added that no legislation,
however well conceived, cannot succeed without effective implementation.

He added that sustained investment, public awareness,scientific innovation, institutional cooperation and community participation remain indispensable to the fight against infectious diseases.

The Abia born Labour Party lawmaker added that the proposed amendment must form part of a broader national commitment to strengthening our health system and ensuring that public health interventions produce lasting results.

By Our Correspondent

As the race for 2027 election draws closer, a socio-political and pro-democracy organization on the platform of Igbo Agenda Dialogue has declared its support to the presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Peter Obi and urged all Igbos to give him bloc votes.

Making this declaration at a Press Conference in Abuja on Wednesday, National Chairman of Igbo Dialogue. Chief Chekwas Okorie said the organization’s choice of Mr Peter Obi was born out of deep reflection of Obi’s visionary leadership and track record.

According to Chief Okorie”The Igbo Agenda Dialogue, IAD, is a socio-political and pro-democracy organization of Igbo people in Nigeria and the diaspora. We are connected to all extant Igbo based unions, market associations, women associations, youth groups, and civil society organizations in Nigeria and abroad.

“We promote, protect, and defend Igbo political interests within the context of one Nigeria. We are the Igbo political grid.

“We have traced Igbo political antecedents in Nigeria before and after Nigeria’s independence in 1960. In this long history, Igbo people have, at various times and periods, collaborated with other ethnic nationalities to champion and promote national unity especially in the area of the formation of previous governments during and after democratic elections in Nigeria. ”

Having examined the political history of Nigeria as it affects power shift, Chief Okorie noted,” In the present build up to the 2027 presidential election, we painstakingly appraised all the frontline presidential candidates presented by the various political parties for the election.

” We considered their track records in the previous political leadership positions they held, their empathy and passion for the people of Nigeria, their physical fitness to rise to the onerous challenges of presiding over the country as large and heterogeneous as Nigeria.

“We also considered their probity and prudence in the management of public resources and with the outcome of this appraisal exercise, we consulted widely and extensively with all the extant groups earlier mentioned above, we came to the unanimous resolution that it will be in the best interest of Nigeria to elect Mr Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Party (NDC) as the President of Nigeria come January 16, 2027.

” We are encouraged by the fact that Mr Peter Obi has earned the popular support of the majority of Nigerians across all ethnic and religious divide in the country. He is also easily the most visible Nigerian presidential candidate for the 2027 election known globally. We are further motivated to endorse Mr Peter Obi for the office of President of Nigeria because right from the inception of Nigeria presidential system of government, Nigerians have been compelled by certain circumstances to be limited to mostly gerontocrats in their choice of President till now.

“For the first time in a long time Nigerians have a singular opportunity to massively participate in the recruitment of the president of their choice in spite of various acts of intimidation and threats being bandied around by those who are in self-inflicted panic about the obvious defeat that awaits them in free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive elections.

“We seize this opportunity to urge eligible Igbo persons in Nigeria to come out in their millions to compliment other Nigerians who have already demonstrated their willingness to give Mr Peter Obi the opportunity to provide the much needed leadership which Nigerians very much desire at this present time.”

Continuing he said,” In spite of the reluctance of previous Nigerian governments to conduct a credible national census, we can state without equivocation that Igbo people constitute a minimum of 25% of the voting population in each of the 31 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) or the second largest population to the indigenous population of these states while constituting over 99% of the voting population in the five states in the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria.

“We have a responsibility to join hands with all well-meaning Nigerians to usher in a compassionate, prudent, incorruptible leader in the person of Mr Peter Obi as the next President of Nigeria in 2027, with the able support of his compatriot who is similarly compassionate and people oriented Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the former Governor of Kano State who is his running mate in the presidential race.

“On a final note, we advise other Igbo politicians who are in other political parties who also have the right to campaign for the presidential candidates of their choice to limit their campaigns to issues while canvassing for votes for their preferred candidates. Igbo people are peace loving citizens of Nigeria, we have shown earlier in this address the support and collaboration our people and their leaders gave to candidates from other parts of the country and ethnic groups to win elections and form governments in the past.”

Chief Okorie further observed, ” It will be recalled that it was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, that led the struggle to attain Nigeria’s independence in 1960 without bloodshed. In the general election of 1960 in Nigeria, it was the Igbo dominated National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, against all odds, that went into a political coalition with the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC which enabled the NPC to form a stable government led by Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, a Northerner, as the Prime Minister of Nigeria. In the second republic, it was also the Igbo dominated Nigerian Peoples Party, NPP, again led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, as presidential candidate that reached an accord with the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, to form a stable and broad based government.

“In the democratic election that the military government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar presided over as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the Igbo political leaders at the time met at the Modotel Hotel in Enugu and resolved to invest their political capital in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), because our son, Dr Alex Ekwueme, the former Vice President of Nigeria under Alhaji Shehu Shagari informed the leaders that his Northern associates in the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had made a firm commitment to him that they would support him to become the democratically elected President of Nigeria in that year. He told the Igbo leaders that he was assured that his well established capacity and competence and his loyalty to Alhaji Shehu Shagari when they were in the NPN had earned him their support.”

He appealed to the leaders to complement the support of the Northern political leaders by voting massively for the PDP. Igbo people complied. Practically all the offices for election in the South East geo-political zone namely, State House of Assembly, Governorship, House of Representatives and Senate were elected on the platform of the PDP in the zone. Unfortunately, Dr Alex Ekwueme was shortchanged at the Presidential Primary of the party held in Jos, Plateau State after conducting all the elections we have mentioned here.

“In the present build up to the 2027 presidential election, we painstakingly appraised all the frontline presidential candidates presented by the various political parties for the election. We considered their track records in the previous political leadership positions they held, their empathy and passion for the people of Nigeria, their physical fitness to rise to the onerous challenges of presiding over the country as large and heterogeneous as Nigeria. We also considered their probity and prudence in the management of public resources and with the outcome of this appraisal exercise, we consulted widely and extensively with all the extant groups earlier mentioned above, we came to the unanimous resolution that it will be in the best interest of Nigeria to elect Mr Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Party (NDC) as the President of Nigeria come January 16, 2027.

“For the first time in a long time Nigerians have a singular opportunity to massively participate in the recruitment of the president of their choice in spite of various acts of intimidation and threats being bandied around by those who are in self-inflicted panic about the obvious defeat that awaits them in free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive elections.

He further assured,” the Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD) will escalate its campaign effort through the various networks we have linked with to ensure a resounding victory for Mr Peter Obi in 2027 presidential election.”