NASENI Kicks-off FutureMakers Hackathon for 60 Young Innovators- Winners to receive ₦1.5m, ₦1m and ₦500,000 zone prizes

Sunday Ehigiator

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) is set to commence the FutureMakers by NASENI Virtual Hackathon and Pitch Sessions, with 60 young innovators selected from across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.

The five-day virtual hackathon, organised by the NASENI Innovation Hub, is scheduled to hold from Monday, August 17 to Friday, August 21, 2026, while the pitch sessions will take place from Monday, August 24 to Wednesday, August 26.

According to a statement issued yesterday by NASENI’s Deputy Director, Information, Chima Akwaja, the 60 participants were shortlisted from thousands of entries received for the competition.

The selected innovators will develop working solutions to challenge statements specific to their respective geopolitical zones, with support from technical facilitators and mentors.

“Those who advance from the hackathon will proceed to the pitch sessions, where they will present their solutions before a panel of judges and industry leaders. The pitch sessions will also be streamed live on YouTube and Facebook.”

NASENI said winners emerging from each geopolitical zone would receive prizes of ₦1.5 million, ₦1 million and ₦500,000 respectively.

In addition, “the top six winners from the zones will proceed to pitch their innovations at the NASENI Invention Fest, where they will have an opportunity to win a grand prize of ₦5 million, an international study tour and fully funded scholarships to two leading Nigerian universities.”

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, described the programme as the culmination of months of outreach, selection and preparation of young innovators.

“FutureMakers Week is the culminating moment of the programme cycle, where months of outreach and selection turn into built solutions and backed ventures. Sixty innovators, six zones, six challenges: the programme is deliberately national in reach and local in problem definition,” Halilu said.

The Hub Manager, NASENI Innovation Hub, Busola Beckley Perez-Folayan, said the initiative was designed to create a sustained talent pipeline rather than a one-off competition.

She said winners would gain access to SparkLab, mentorship, training and scholarship pathways, in addition to the ₦5 million prize available at the national stage.

“this talent pipeline is not a one-off competition. Winners gain SparkLab access, mentorship, training and scholarship pathways alongside the ₦5,000,000 prize. The virtual format widens access to innovators beyond Abuja and Lagos. This is a working demonstration of government-backed innovation infrastructure delivering for young Nigerians,” Perez-Folayan said.

NASENI said the programme was aligned with its mandate to help move Nigeria from a consumer economy to a producer economy by developing indigenous technological capacity and supporting innovation.

A major feature of FutureMakers is its zone-specific approach, with each of the six geopolitical zones working on a challenge drawn from the lived realities and development needs of its own region, rather than responding to a single national challenge.

The initiative is being delivered in collaboration with academic and ecosystem partners, including MIVA Open University and the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja.

NASENI Innovation Hub is also a member of the AfriLabs network, a pan-African network supporting innovation hubs and technology ecosystems across the continent.

According to NASENI, FutureMakers is designed to identify, equip and support early-stage Nigerian innovators aged between five and 16, enabling them to develop technology-driven solutions to development challenges in their respective regions.

The initiative is also intended to connect the young innovators to NASENI’s engineering, prototyping and commercialisation infrastructure, thereby creating pathways for promising ideas to progress from concepts to viable solutions.