Estonia listed for Nigerian innovators’ acceleration training

Nigeria’s National Board for Technology Incubation said international acceleration places were announced for 16 innovators selected through the 2026 NextGen Innovation Challenge. Dr Mazin Gadir announced the opportunities at the programme’s finale at ExCeL London on 9 October, with training destinations in Finland, Estonia, Poland and Abu Dhabi.

Each place was valued at about $10,000, a stated total of $160,000. NBTI director-general Dr Kazeem Raji said the selected projects covered agriculture, healthcare, artificial intelligence, education, clean energy, digital technology and enterprise solutions. The named projects included SAMA GOLD, Vellas Global Nutrition, Dunnally Fiber, ALINGA, CellGuard, Euler, Quad K PalmTech One, MTH SUNPOD, ACAD AI, AI Explorer for Kids, Gistoneer, Projavi, VoicePilot, Web3tribe University, GreenBook and 9ja Farm.

Raji said the acceleration programmes were expected to help participants strengthen their business models, improve investor readiness, build international networks and explore new markets. The challenge, organised by NBTI with UKALD, drew 298 Nigerian innovators from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, up from 105 in 2025.

He said the initiative was designed to connect Nigerian innovators with international investors, business leaders and development partners so indigenous technologies could move toward the market. He added that NBTI’s priority was to help innovators develop commercially viable products, build sustainable businesses and create jobs.