Four outstanding engineering innovations developed by student teams from the Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUT), Yola; the University of Ibadan (UI); the University of Jos (UniJos); and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), have emerged as winners of the maiden Nigerian Engineering Olympiad (NEO), sharing N110 million in seed funding to accelerate the commercialisation of their innovations.
At the Grand Finale held in Lagos on June 30, MAUT received a N50 million grant as the overall winner, while UI received N30 million for second place.
The University of Jos received N20 million for third place, and UNN received N10 million for finishing fourth. Beyond the cash prizes, the winning teams will receive continued technical mentorship, business development support, industry partnerships, and commercialisation opportunities.
Also, the engineering faculties of the winning universities were rewarded. MAUT received a Centre of Excellence Building, while UI and UNN received grants of N75 million and N50 million, respectively, to strengthen engineering education and research
MAUT emerged the overall winner with “Ubuntu Sapphire”, a decentralised, community-powered rapid alert and security intelligence network built for the security realities of rural and peri-urban Nigeria, where connectivity is poor, security architecture is thin, and millions of households still depend on feature phones.
The Nigerian Engineering Olympiad is a strategic national initiative aimed at bridging Nigeria’s engineering skills gap and strengthening the country’s innovation ecosystem.
Beyond the competition, it provides seed funding, mentorship, technical guidance, and industry exposure to develop a pipeline of highly skilled innovators and technology entrepreneurs capable of advancing Nigeria’s energy, manufacturing, ICT, infrastructure, and industrial sectors.
The initiative is supported through a strategic partnership involving the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) as sponsor; Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited and First Exploration & Petroleum Development Company (First E&P) as funders; the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) as technical partner; and Enactus Nigeria as the implementing partner responsible for programme delivery and project management.
The University of Ibadan claimed second place with their “Aurora Birth” innovation, a HealthTech solution designed to reduce neonatal deaths from birth asphyxia, especially in low-resource settings.
The University of Jos secured third place with “Sentra,” a solar-powered, AI-enabled crop diagnostic device that detects pests, diseases, and soil nutrient deficiencies before visible symptoms appear, giving smallholder farmers the early warning, they need to act promptly.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka finished fourth with ‘’Flameless’’ – a containerised, modular power-generation platform that captures associated gas and converts it into electricity, providing reliable and affordable power for households, communities and businesses.
The winning projects distinguished themselves by offering practical, scalable, and commercially viable solutions to critical national challenges in security, healthcare, agriculture, and energy.
The winners emerged from a highly competitive national contest that attracted 375 successful team applicants from among 984 student participants across 80 tertiary institutions. Thirty teams qualified for the regional stage after the competition, which commenced in November 2025, with projects assessed on technical excellence, innovation, scalability, commercial viability, societal impact, and sustainability.
Speaking at the occasion, Margaret Oguntola, immediate past president of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), described the initiative as a bold step toward repositioning young engineers as drivers of sustainable national development.
She explained that the NSE was concerned about how to bridge the gap between the abundant talents in the tertiary institutions and technological advancement and industrialization aspirations, which NEO is purposely designed to fill.
Also speaking, Olutosin Ogunmola, who represented the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) on the NEO Steering Committee, described engineering as the critical difference between developed and developing nations, stressing that the profession remains central to nation-building.
He observed that sectors such as music and reality television have flourished partly because of healthy competition and public recognition, adding that the Olympiad seeks to create similar competitiveness within engineering education while celebrating the ingenuity of students and their lecturers.
In his welcome remarks, Michael Ajayi, Country Director of Enactus Nigeria, NEO implementing partner, said investing in youth-driven innovation is essential to Nigeria’s future, noting that the competition aligns with the organisation’s mission of promoting youth leadership and enterprise development.
According to him, it is expedient that the country intentionally harnesses its creativity, technical expertise, and entrepreneurial capacity to solve real-world problems, build sustainable businesses, and create jobs.
Speaking in a similar vein, Felix Omatsola Ogbe, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NEO initiator) said his organisation would continue to support the NEO initiative in identifying and developing undergraduate and post-graduate engineering talent.
Ogbe, who was represented by Silas Omomehin Ajimijaye, Director of Planning Research and Statistics, commended the programme’s partners and challenged them to ensure that the winning innovations progress beyond the competition to reach the market and improve lives.
The representative of the Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, one of the funding partners, Igo Weli – Vice President (Relations and Sustainable Development), expressed satisfaction with the outcomes of the maiden NEO, promising that the prototype development grant for the participating teams would increase from the current N3million to N5million in the next edition.
Another funding partner, FIRST Exploration & Petroleum Development Company (FIRST E&P), which was represented at the occasion by John Alamu, General Manager, Engineering & Capital Projects, described the Olympiad as an important platform for strengthening STEM education and reducing the growing challenge of brain drain.
“We must build mechanisms that not only recognise excellence in problem-solving and technical capacity but also encourage solutions tailored to Nigeria’s energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and sustainability needs’’, he stated.
Khalil Halilu, Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), the Special Guest at the occasion, represented by Emmanuel Ajani, congratulated the young innovators and commended the organizers for the great initiatives, which he described as a veritable platform designed to identify exceptional engineering talents within the Nigerian universities, capable of driving Nigeria’s industrial transformation.
The maiden NEO competition broadly showcased innovations spanning healthcare, renewable energy, agriculture, security, infrastructure, manufacturing, and industrial technology, highlighting the ingenuity of young Nigerian engineers in addressing pressing national and global challenges.
The Olympiad began with regional competitions across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones- Yenagoa, Enugu, Ibadan, Abuja, Yola, and Kano- where 30 shortlisted teams competed.
Following prototype development funding of N3 million for each of the 30 shortlisted teams (five from each from the six regions), the teams competed at the Regional Competitions, where the top 12 teams (two per region) were selected to advance to the National Bootcamp.
Twelve teams advanced to the national stage and participated in an intensive innovation bootcamp in Lagos, out of which four finalists emerged.
During the bootcamp, participants received mentorship from engineering professionals, entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, and innovation experts before competing in semi-final knockout rounds that produced the eventual winners.
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