•Says initiative will support growth-driven ideas through education, mentorship, financing
The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) will on December 10 this year launch the maiden edition of the NSIA Prize for Innovation Programme (NPIP).
The NPIP initiative to be launched at an event in Lagos, was structured as a business enhancement programme to support early-stage, growth-driven ideas through education, mentorship, and financing.
The event would be attended by the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, members of the NSIA Board; the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NSIA, Aminu Umar -Sadiq; NSIA Non-Executive Director, Mr Ikemefuna Isiekwena, Founding Parhner Ventures Platform, Kola Aina among others.
The programme is a strategy-based initiative of the NSIA Board which would run for at least three years.
Through the NPIP initiative, the NSIA was poised to identify, build, and channel the country’s latent potential in innovation and technology to catalyse economic growth, enhance the nation’s productive capacity, create jobs, and optimise resource sustainability.
In addition, the NPIP 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 NPIP priority sectors are technology-enabled businesses in key seven priority sectors of the Nigerian economy.
The key sectors are financial services, agriculture, health, education, manufacturing, renewables and power.
The listed priority sectors were selected given the appreciable impact innovations in these sectors can have on the Nigerian economy.
The programme is a three-year commitment by the NSIA to empower Nigerian tech-preneurs and upcoming innovators, in a bid to catalyse the rise of the budding digital economy.
With this programme, the NSIA Board expects to catalyse 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.
In line with NSIA’s vision of playing a leading role in promoting investments for Nigeria’s economic development, the strategic intent of the programme is to assist the Authority to establish direct access to the Nigerian technology sector.
This would assist in creating a strong pipeline for future investments by its Innovation Fund.
In essence, the programme would provide a platform to understand industry modalities and gain first-hand knowledge of rising stars within the technology ecosystem.
Given the long-term significance of the programme, the initiative would also serve as a catalyst to unlock the conscious competence of the next generation of Nigerians across a myriad of fields particularly in the digital age.
The programme would also adopt a three-staged competition at the end of which ten finalists will emerge and win various prizes. The programme is expected to run for twelve weeks covering the following stages.
Pre-selection Stage: At this stage, applications are completed by innovators through an application portal. Applicants are expected to provide details regarding their digital product/service, business model and minimum viable product.
An evaluation committee of five (5) individuals comprising representatives from the NSIA, technical and venture capital partners will select up to twenty-five (25) innovators (one product/service for each) to advance in the competition. Selection of shortlisted applicants will require a 2/3 majority vote to proceed to the next stage.
Accelerator Stage: Shortlisted innovators will participate in a technical partner-led, accelerator programme designed to mentor and equip the techpreneurs with the tools required to succeed.
The ten successful and committed tech-preneurs would be adjudged by an independent panel of expert judges jointly appointed by the Authority and technical partners to advance to the final stage (demo day). Innovators would benefit from access to networking, training, and other resources.
Final Stage (Demo Day): The ten Programme finalists will each be allotted a timeslot to present their pitch to the panel of judges. The judging panel will comprise of the technical and venture partners and a combination of local and foreign technology industry experts and investors.
