Tinubu to Present Grants to NASENI Innovation Competition Winners on October 7
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to present prize grants to winners of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) innovation competitions at the NASENI Innovation Awards in Abuja on Wednesday, October 7, 2026.
The awards ceremony will recognise innovators who emerged from competitions designed to identify promising Nigerian ideas and support their development into practical solutions and commercially viable ventures.
Among the programmes being recognised are InnovateNaija and FutureMakers by NASENI, alongside NASENI’s Intra-Inter Agency Innovation Competitions. The awards are expected to bring together some of the country’s emerging innovators, government officials and stakeholders in Nigeria’s science and technology ecosystem.
For InnovateNaija, the competition has focused on identifying innovative solutions from across Nigeria and creating a pathway for promising ideas to receive funding and support.
The competition attracted innovators from the states, with finalists advancing through different stages before the national awards. The overall InnovateNaija winner is expected to receive a ₦100 million prize, while the first and second runners-up are set to receive ₦30 million and ₦20 million, respectively.
FutureMakers by NASENI has taken a different approach by focusing on young innovators. The programme has provided children and teenagers with opportunities to develop technology-driven solutions to real-world problems.
The 2026 FutureMakers programme produced 18 zonal winners, with six finalists advancing to the national stage. The programme has also provided participants with access to mentorship, technical training and NASENI’s innovation resources.
The FutureMakers national winner is expected to receive a ₦5 million grand prize, in addition to other opportunities linked to the programme, including an international study or innovation tour and university scholarships.
The awards also include winners from NASENI’s Intra-Inter Agency Innovation Competitions. These competitions were designed to encourage innovation within government institutions and NASENI’s own development network.
The broader initiative reflects NASENI’s push to move Nigerian innovations beyond ideas and prototypes towards products, businesses and industrial applications. The agency has increasingly positioned its innovation programmes as a pipeline for supporting researchers, young innovators, startups and entrepreneurs.
Ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony, finalists in some of the competitions are completing their final pitching stages as they compete for the top prizes.
The presentation of the grants by President Tinubu is expected to place further national attention on the innovators and the practical solutions emerging from the competitions.
For many of the winners, the financial support could provide an opportunity to improve their prototypes, expand their operations and move closer to turning innovative ideas into sustainable ventures.
The NASENI Innovation Awards therefore represent another step in efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s home-grown technology and innovation ecosystem.