From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), in partnership with Cascador Nigeria and the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC), has awarded a total of $280,000 in cash and equity prizes to top innovators at the grand finale of the third edition of the NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI).
The event, tagged Demo Day 3.0, held in Abuja over the weekend, featured 10 finalists pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges. The top three winners shared $220,000 in equity and cash, disbursed in a 75:25 ratio in exchange for mutually agreed stakes in their companies. Seven other finalists secured places in a five‑week, all‑expense‑paid training at Draper University, Silicon Valley, USA.
D‑Olivett Labs emerged overall winner, receiving $100,000. Promise Point came second with $70,000, while Gerocare took third place with $50,000. Other awards included the $45,000 Cascador Impact Prize and the $15,000 PVAC Healthcare Innovation Prize.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NSIA, Mr Aminu Umar‑Sadiq, said the programme, which started as a modest award scheme three years ago, has grown into a much broader platform that offers education, equity and exposure to young entrepreneurs.
Umar‑Sadiq said this year’s edition received 5,000 applications, adding that the initiative’s success had inspired the NSIA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to co‑launch an impact innovation fund to provide long‑term local currency capital for promising ventures.
According to him, “What was a very humble prize for innovation two years ago has now transformed to a much larger, much broader, and much more impactful proposition for Nigerian youth. As a direct result of the success of this programme, the NSIA and JICA of Japan are now co‑launching an impact innovation fund so that we have a pool of long‑term local currency capital to further offer growth capital to these great ideas.
“We are putting together this platform in order to find the three best ideas for NSIA to invest in. There is a modest component of what would be a grant, but the significant majority would be equity into the top three. This is going to be a prize that the NSIA will run in a sustainable manner moving forward, with different versions hopefully over the next decade and beyond.”
Also speaking, Programme Director of Cascador Nigeria, Amanda Etuk, said the competition demonstrated the calibre of visionary entrepreneurs emerging from Nigeria.
Etuk said Cascador’s focus was on empowering founders through mentorship and partnerships that could scale their solutions. She congratulated the finalists, noting that supporting such innovation was vital to building a resilient entrepreneurial ecosystem.
On his part, National Coordinator of PVAC, Dr Abdu Mukhtar, said the initiative was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare value chain by mobilising private sector resources, improving local manufacturing and reducing medical tourism.
According to Mukhtar, the recent policy changes had introduced zero‑duty and zero‑VAT incentives for manufacturers of healthcare products in Nigeria, with several production facilities already launched and more in the pipeline.
In his remarks, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, congratulated the winners and praised all contestants for their creativity and courage.
Edun, while emphasising that Nigeria’s youth, who make up 65 per cent of the population, hold the key to the nation’s future, said the Federal Government was committed to supporting innovation through heavy investments in infrastructure, skills training and funding.
The Minister mentioned that government initiatives also target the digital and creative economy, agriculture, and healthcare. He urged the winners to focus on agriculture as a critical driver of growth, noting the need for improved productivity through new products and methodologies.
Edun referenced a Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s prediction that the next big technological breakthroughs will come from Africa, adding that such a future requires resilience from innovators.
He further highlighted how technology had helped his ministry improve financial transparency, citing the ministry’s recent success in going live with a new system after months of preparation.
“You are the future, you represent 65 per cent of Nigeria’s population. We need your ideas to move this country forward. We have a 90,000km fibre optic backbone, one of the biggest technology programmes anywhere in the world, and we are also funding women entrepreneurs to enable them to start and grow businesses. Agriculture is critical, and we need new products and methodologies to improve productivity.
“The effort must be sustained because it is all about delivery. The key is implementation. Just yesterday, my team confirmed to me that after months of work, we are now live with our new financing system. You must sustain your ideas, work hard, and never let it be said that you did not push to make them succeed,” the Minister stated.
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