NASENI awards N435.5m to winners of InnovateNaija, Future Makers competitions

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has awarded N435.5 million in grants to innovators across Nigeria under its maiden innovation competitions.

The grants were presented to winners of the Innovate Naija, Future Makers, Intra-Agency and Inter-Agency competitions at an award ceremony held on Wednesday, at the State House Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The national winner of the Innovate Naija competition received N100 million, while the first and second runners-up received N30 million and N20 million, respectively with the 37 state champions, including Abuja getting N2.5 million each.

Similarly, the top six winners of the NASENI Intra-Agency and Inter-Agency competitions received a combined N162 million. Of this amount, N140 million went to the three winners of the Inter-Agency competition, while N22.5 million was shared among the three winners of the Intra-Agency competition.

The top six finalists in the Future Makers competition received a combined N23 million in prize money, with the overall winner receiving a N5 million grant prize.

Presenting the awards, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, represented by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to promoting innovation and developing home-grown technological solutions toward Nigeria’s industrialisation.

Udeh described the NASENI innovation competition as a demonstration of the government’s support for Nigerian innovators and urged the beneficiaries to deploy the grants responsibly to improve their solutions and contribute to national development.

Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, charged the award recipients to continue developing innovations that would address everyday challenges confronting Nigerians.