The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) is set to launch the maiden edition of its Prize for Innovation Programme (NPIP) which targets to empower Nigerian tech-preneurs and upcoming innovators, to leverage the budding digital economy.
The initiative to be launched on December 10 2022, is expected to last for three years and would enable the NSIA identify, build, and channel Nigeria’s latent potential in innovation and technology to catalyse economic growth, enhance the nation’s productive capacity, create jobs, and optimise resource sustainability.
According to the NSIA, the NPIP initiative to be launched in Lagos is structured as a business enhancement programme to support early-stage, growth-driven ideas through education, mentorship, and financing.
The NPIP priority sectors are technology-enabled businesses in key sectors of the Nigerian economy, including financial services, agriculture, health, education, manufacturing, renewables and power.
BusinessDay learnt that these priority sectors were selected given the appreciable impact they could make on the economy.
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Expected at the event are Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State; members of NSIA board; founding partner, Ventures Platform, Kola Aina among others.
The NSIA explained that the programme was designed to encourage and support creativity and ingenuity within the technology space and to fund new ideas that could result in cost-effective, scalable, and transformative positive impact.
The authority’s board expects to catalyze the growth and development of the Nigerian technology ecosystem by identifying budding Nigerian innovators, enhancing their capabilities, and providing a platform to showcase and scale these technological solutions globally over multiple cycles of the programme.
