Nanko Madu is the Director of Programmes, AfriLabs; she is a seasoned ecosystem builder with over 12 years of experience advancing entrepreneurship and economic development across Africa. As Director of Programmes at AfriLabs, she leads the design and delivery of high-impact initiatives that strengthen innovation hubs, startups, women, youth, and talent across the continent. Her work spans flagship programmes such as the AU Digital and Innovation Fellowship, RevUp Women, IGNITE Food Systems Innovation Challenge, and the establishment of the NASENI Innovation Hub all impacting over 15,000 innovators and entreprenuers across Africa. With prior experience consulting for the World Bank, including the delivery of large-scale SME and grant programmes exceeding ₦12 billion, Nanko brings deep expertise in capacity building, ecosystem development, and inclusive growth, with a strong commitment to empowering African women and youth.
- How would you describe the core objective of the InnovateNaija Challenge, and what gap it is specifically designed to address within Nigeria’s engineering and manufacturing ecosystem?
InnovateNaija exists to find and support talented Nigerians who are building practical solutions in engineering, manufacturing, and hardware. These are solutions that can help grow Nigeria’s industry and improve how things are produced locally.
Across the country, youths are creating useful ideas in areas like energy, agriculture, transportation, climate solutions, healthcare, and manufacturing. However, most of them struggle to grow because they lack funding, access to equipment, mentorship, visibility, and ways to bring their products to market.
InnovateNaija was created to solve this problem. It provides a national platform to discover these innovators, support them, and connect them with the resources they need to grow. It also aims to change the narrative by showing that Nigerian‑made solutions can compete and reduce the country’s reliance on imported products, while creating jobs and boosting the economy.
The programme is supported by a total prize pool of over ₦250 million. At the state level, 37 innovators (from all 36 states and the FCT) each receive ₦2.5 million to improve their solutions. In some states, this amount is increased to ₦5 million, as so far, 6 state governors have committed to matching the initial grant with an additional ₦2.5 million. From there, the top 15 finalists move to the national stage, where the overall winner receives ₦100 million, while the first and second runners‑up receive ₦30 million and ₦20 million respectively.
So far, the programme has received over 2,000 applications, and 133 finalists have been selected across 36 states, showing that there is strong innovation talent across Nigeria.
- InnovateNaija places a strong emphasis on engineering and manufacturing. Given the high cost of production and infrastructure in Nigeria, how is the challenge supporting the 36 state winners to de‑risk their manufacturing processes and become attractive to private investors?
InnovateNaija is specifically designed to help innovators move from just having ideas or prototypes to building real products that can be sold in the market, create jobs, reduce imports, and grow Nigeria’s industries.
Building products in Nigeria can be expensive due to power challenges, high production costs, and limited infrastructure. First, innovators receive financial support, starting with at least ₦2.5 million at the state level and up to ₦100 million at the national level, to help them improve and refine their products. Second, they get access to the NASENI Innovation Hub and NASENI Institutes across the country, where they can use equipment and facilities for testing and production, something many innovators would not be able to afford on their own. The challenge also follows a structured process, from 133 finalists to state winners, to 15 national finalists, to ensure that participants are gradually refined, mentored, and prepared to present strong and credible business solutions.
Importantly, this does not end with the competition. Selected innovators from InnovateNaija will move into the NASENI Xceler8 programme, where they will receive further support to refine their products and prepare for commercialization and scale. This ensures that promising solutions continue to grow beyond the challenge. InnovateNaija is reducing the risks of building manufacturing businesses and helping innovators become investment ready and scalable by combining funding, infrastructure, mentorship, and follow on acceleration.
- The NASENI Innovation Hub is positioned as a centre of excellence for manufacturing. From a programme design standpoint, how are you structuring the incubation journey to ensure that a brilliant inventor also emerges as a capable CEO, able to manage teams, capital, and large‑scale industrial operations?
We recognize that being a brilliant innovator is very different from being able to build and run a successful business, and the programme is intentionally designed to develop both skills together. Through the NASENI Innovation Hub, participants are able to receive hands‑on support to refine their products, moving them from basic prototypes to solutions that are reliable, scalable, and ready for real‑world use. This includes access to equipment, testing facilities, and engineering expertise that many innovators would not otherwise be able to afford.
At the same time, equal emphasis is placed on building strong entrepreneurial and leadership capacity. Participants are guided on how to price their products, understand their costs, and build sustainable revenue models.
The structure of the competition itself also plays a key role in developing these capabilities. As participants move from 133 finalists to 36 state winners and then to 15 national finalists, they are continuously challenged to improve how they communicate their ideas and present their businesses to wider audiences. By the time participants reach the final stage, they are expected to be able to clearly explain not just their innovation, but also how it will be produced, sold, and scaled.
In addition, exposure to real manufacturing environments through the NASENI ecosystem helps make concepts like production timelines, quality control, and supply chains more practical and easier to understand. The size of the top prize is also deliberate—it requires the winner to think and act like a business leader, making strategic decisions about how to deploy capital, grow their team, and scale operations responsibly.
- Based on your experience supporting innovators across diverse geographies, how do we ensure that an inventor in a digitally underserved state such as Kebbi or Plateau has the same pathway to success as one in Lagos, particularly when it comes to post‑challenge support and access to follow‑on investment?
This is one of the most important challenges that InnovateNaija is addressing, ensuring that opportunity is not limited by location. The programme has already made strong progress, with representation across all states including the FCT, and only one state (Ebonyi) currently without a finalist, compared to three states in previous cycles. However, selecting innovators from across the country is only the first step. Ensuring that innovators from underserved states like Kebbi or Plateau can continue to grow requires deliberate support beyond the competition.
NASENI provides a critical advantage through its network of engineering and research institutes across the country, which innovators can tap into for technical support, testing, and production. These include:
- NASENI Headquarters & Innovation Hub (Abuja) – product development, commercialization, and coordination
- Hydraulics Equipment Development Institute (Kano) – fluid systems and industrial equipment
- Power Equipment and Electrical Machinery Development Institute (Okene) – power systems and electrical engineering
- Electronics Development Institute (Awka) – electronics, embedded systems, and hardware design
- Advance Manufacturing Technology Programme (Afaka, Kaduna) – manufacturing processes and fabrication
- Engineering Materials Development Institute (Akure) – materials testing and product durability
These facilities help innovators move from prototype to production without bearing the full cost of setting up infrastructure themselves. In addition, AfriLabs’ network of hubs across Nigeria in partnership with NASENI Innovation Hub are also available to provide continued local support, meaning innovators do not need to relocate to Lagos or other major cities to access opportunities. Ongoing mentorship, regular checkins, and digital platforms also allow participants to stay connected, learn from one another, and access investors regardless of location.
While broader challenges like power supply and infrastructure cannot be solved by a single programme, InnovateNaija is designed to meet innovators where they are and give them a fair chance to succeed.
- How is InnovateNaija intentionally designed to trigger systemic change—shifting young Nigerians from a grant‑seeking mindset toward long‑term industrial and value‑chain building?
Without the right structure, funding can create dependency rather than real growth. InnovateNaija is therefore designed to change behavior, not just distributing capital.
One of the ways it does this is by introducing real accountability early in the process. Through the public voting phase, innovators must actively engage communities, users, and stakeholders to support their solutions. This builds early market awareness and validation, ensuring that participants are not just inventors, but individuals who understand demand and engagement.
The programme also reinforces a performance based mindset. Progression is structured, from 133 finalists to state winners and then to 15 national finalists, and each stage requires stronger execution, clearer communication, and more refined business thinking. This ensures that advancement is based on demonstrated value, not just participation.
Importantly, this programme is deeply aligned with NASENI’s national industrial infrastructure. Through the NASENI Innovation Hub, innovators gain access to a centralized platform for product refinement, testing, and commercialization. This is further strengthened by NASENI’s wider ecosystem of technical institutes across Nigeria, covering electronics, power systems, materials engineering, manufacturing, and mechanical systems. These institutes provide the technical backbone needed to move innovations from smallscale prototypes to reliable, productionready products.
The programme also builds a strong peerdriven environment, where participants are exposed to other highperforming innovators across the country. This creates a culture of ambition, execution, and competitiveness, helping participants see themselves not as grant recipients, but as founders building serious ventures.
At the same time, InnovateNaija ensures geographical inclusion. With representation across all states, the programme deliberately removes location as a barrier. Through AfriLabs’ network of over 500 innovation hubs, combined with digital support systems, innovators in underserved regions can access mentorship, knowledge, and opportunities without relocating. The NASENI Innovation Hub further acts as a national access point to infrastructure, ensuring that support is centralized but accessible.
It is important to recognize that broader challenges, such as power supply, infrastructure gaps, and uneven economic development, cannot be fully solved by one programme. However, InnovateNaija is designed to work around these constraints, meeting innovators where they are, and connecting them to systems that enable growth.
Ultimately, the goal is to create a new kind of participant: not a grant beneficiary, but an industrial entrepreneur. InnovateNaija is therefore not just identifying innovation, it is building a pipeline of leaders who can drive Nigeria’s industrial future.
- What mechanisms are being put in place to ensure that InnovateNaija is not a one‑off competition, but a repeatable pipeline for Nigeria’s industrial innovation?
The long‑term sustainability of InnovateNaija is not accidental; it is being built into the programme’s design from the outset. A key foundation is its institutional anchoring within NASENI, a federal agency with a permanent mandate for engineering and manufacturing development. This ensures that InnovateNaija is not tied to a single funding cycle, administration, or project timeline. The NASENI Innovation Hub itself is a permanent facility, meaning the same infrastructure supporting this cohort will continue to support future cohorts.
Another important element is the creation of a living national database of innovators. The 133 finalists identified across all states are not just participants in a single competition; they form the early stage of a curated pipeline of Nigerian engineering talent that NASENI, investors, and industry partners can continue to engage with over time. This transforms the programme from a one‑off event into a repeatable talent discovery and development system.
The programme is also being structured with an annual cycle in mind. From finalist communication and public voting to state winner selection and the grand finale at the NASENI Invention Fest, each step is being documented as a repeatable process. Over time, this will establish InnovateNaija as a recognisable national platform, a consistent opportunity that innovators, investors, and stakeholders expect and prepare for every year.
Equally important is the programme’s commitment to continuous improvement through data. Insights from this cycle, such as gender participation (83% male, 17% female) and the strong concentration of solutions in the energy sector, are actively informing future improvements. This ability to learn and adapt is what strengthens the programme with each cycle.
In addition, InnovateNaija is driving state‑level ownership and continuity by engaging state governments more directly. states, Bauchi, Enugu, Kaduna, Niger, Gombe, Abia, and Plateau have already demonstrated alignment by providing matching funds for winners and direct ecosystem engagement. This growing collaboration with state governments ensures that innovation is not only recognized nationally but also supported locally within state economies, creating stronger pathways for sustainability and impact.
Ultimately, the vision is for InnovateNaija to become a trusted national pathway for engineering and manufacturing innovation in Nigeria, a system that consistently identifies talent, supports growth, builds industries, and positions Nigerian solutions to compete globally.
