By our correspondent<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The challenge, organised with UKALD, held its grand finale on October 9 at ExCeL London, bringing together Nigerian innovators, investors, diplomats and development partners.<\/p>\n
Raji said 298 innovators from the 36 states and FCT participated, up from 105 in 2025, to showcase homegrown technologies to global markets.<\/p>\n
Innovations covered AI, robotics, agriculture, healthcare, education, renewable energy, telecoms, enterprise software, 3D printing and advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n
He said NBTI’s next focus is turning ideas into viable businesses that create jobs and address national challenges.<\/p>\n
The proposed $600million portfolio comprises a $500million solar programme with Gigawatt Global to build solar farms in universities and polytechnics under Power Purchase Agreements.<\/p>\n
It also includes $100million financing for the Tinubu Light Initiative under an MoU between NBTI and Financial Innovation for Impact, UK.<\/p>\n
Raji clarified the figures are proposed investments, not funds received, as realization depends on due diligence, approvals and financing agreements.<\/p>\n
He said the investments could boost renewable infrastructure and electricity access in tertiary institutions while advancing clean-energy goals.<\/p>\n
Raji also unveiled the Tinubu Light Initiative, targeting one million micro and small businesses with solar solutions to cut energy costs.<\/p>\n
The programme projects 10,000 field marketers, 50,000 direct youth jobs, N30billion blended financing in phase one and N12billion annual economic benefits.<\/p>\n
He said beneficiaries include tailors, barbers, pharmacies, restaurants, retailers, POS operators and women and youth-led businesses.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Raji added that 16 innovators got international accelerator slots worth $10,000 each and Pre-MBA scholarships worth over \u00a35,000 each, plus UK Global Talent Visa support, urging investors to back Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem with transparent, verifiable implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18860,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18859\/revisions\/18860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}