The Nigeria Innovation Summit 9.0 which was held on October 2nd, 2024 with the theme: “Building a Culture of Innovation”, was successfully concluded with the participation of delegates and stakeholders across the globe, who took part in the hybrid event.
The Summit in its 9th year is an annual event that brings together stakeholders from different sectors of Nigeria’s economy, governments, investors, policymakers, and players in the tech and innovation ecosystem to discuss ground-breaking ideas, trends, and opportunities to innovate solutions that solve unique challenges within Nigeria, and the African continent at large.
This year’s NIS explored topics such as A Paradoxical Approach to Collaborative Innovation; Unique Opportunities for the Next Generation of Women in Tech; Empowering Nigerian Youths through the Digital Economy; Youth-Led Innovations for a Sustainable Future; Connecting Africa with the World Through ISPIM, among others.
The highlights of the Summit were the Nigeria Innovations Experience Talks (NiX Talks) which was powered by TotalEnergies. The NiX Talks focused on “Cultivating Sustainable Innovation Through Eco-Friendly Solutions”. Other Summit features were fireside chats, panel discussions/interactive sessions, Quick Pitch (Pitch-a-Thon), innovation showcases and exhibitions, and expert insights on emerging technologies and their applications in solving local problems.
Some of the speakers and panellists include Dr Aminu Maida, EVC/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); Ifedolapo Runsewe, Managing Director, FREEE Recycle; Bruno Woeran, TechTransfer & Innovation, Austria; Wofai Ibie, Community Manager, HEI Innovation, CcHUB; Stella Bida, Executive Leadership Consultant, TEDx Speaker; Dozie Igweilo, Founder, Quadloop; Dr. Folakemi Fadahunsi, CEO, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria (Shoprite); and others.
The crowning of the Nigerian Innovation Summit (NIS) 9.0 was the 2024 Nigeria Innovation Awards. The Nigeria Innovation Awards recognises and awards key innovators at the forefront of the Nigerian Innovation landscape, as well as disruptors bringing positive and empirical impacts as well as progressive solutions to unique challenges.
The submissions from the 2024 NIS Awards prove that there is a need to build innovative business solutions, and develop an ecosystem in Nigeria across all sectors to drive innovation by promoting local content development, and locally-relevant technological solutions to impact significantly on the socio-economic development of Nigeria so that local innovation can solve local issues.
Of the hundreds nominated for the Nigerian Innovation Awards 2024, only six organisations emerged as worthy recipients of this year’s awards, given their impressive track record of innovatively tackling problems and measurable impacts in keeping the Nigerian innovation landscape sustainable, and have embraced innovation to move Nigeria forward through their works.
The 2024 Nigeria Innovation Awards awardees include NASENI for Enabling Innovative Industrialization in Nigeria; MobiHealth for Providing Innovative Telehealth Solutions; FREEE Recycle for Recycling Waste Into Reusable Eco-Friendly Materials; ThriveAgric for Empowering Farmers Through Agritech Solutions; Paradigm Initiatives for Connecting African Youths With Digital Opportunities, and WEMA Bank ALAT for Pioneering Fully Digital Bank In Nigeria.
The Nigeria Innovation Summit 9.0 had in participation delegates from government agencies, diplomats, academic communities and research institutes, international organisations, investors, entrepreneurs, business/thought leaders, innovators, startups, and students.
The 2024 NIS concluded with an Innovation Tour to Cisco EDGE Lab, where some delegates deepen the conversation and relationship with those bringing true innovation and disruption into the Nigerian innovation ecosystem.
This year’s Summit received huge support from Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM); CcHUB; Emergency Response Africa; Lagos State Employment Trust Funds (LSETF); Virtual Domain; and Cybertron as partners, and was proudly sponsored by TotalEnergies, WEMA Bank, and the African Innovation Academy.
The Summit also has the following as its official media partners Legit.ng; Brand Times; Techeconomy.ng; ITPulse; RaveNewsOnline; TechCity; Coinratecap; Technext; Innovation Village; Nigeria Communications Week; Techtrends Africa; Silicon Africa; BrandMyDP; Coinpedia; CoinGabbar; Naijapreneur.com, and more. The Nigeria Innovation Summit was organized by InnovationHub Africa.