The Director-General of the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI), Dr Kazeem Raji, has said Nigerian innovators have the potential to compete successfully in the global market when given the right institutional support and development opportunities.
Raji made the statement on Thursday in Abuja while receiving eight Nigerian innovators who represented the country at the SEE Pakistan 2026 World Startup Championship in Lahore.
The Nigerian team, drawn from NBTI Technology Incubation Centres (TICs) in eight states, won two major awards at the competition, which attracted more than 4,000 applications from over 40 countries.
Raji said the feat demonstrated the potential of Nigerian innovators and supported the Federal Government’s efforts to commercialise indigenous technologies and develop local startups into businesses capable of competing in international markets.
Nigeria won the Country Award in the Growth and Innovation Category, while Ms Zahra Uthman of Nature’s Sleek Ltd., an NBTI Minna-incubated company, received the Best Skincare and Beauty Products award.
The NBTI boss commended the board’s technical officers, centre managers and mentors for the intensive preparation that helped equip the entrepreneurs for the international competition.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Team Leader Mr Ndotehyin Ekanem attributed their performance to specialised training in project management, export readiness and quality management provided under the NBTI Incubation Programme.
Ekanem said the team also underwent intensive business-to-business and business-to-consumer boot camps in Lahore, where they presented locally developed technologies to international venture capitalists and angel investors.
He appealed to the Federal Government to provide dedicated expansion funding to enable the innovators commercialise their products and enter global markets.
Ekanem also called for the delegation to be formally presented to President Bola Tinubu.
He urged state governments to strengthen their partnership with NBTI by providing manufacturing infrastructure that would enable local innovators to increase production, expand their businesses and create more jobs for young Nigerians.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the entrepreneurs represented NBTI incubation centres in Uyo, Ile-Ife, Ibadan, Minna, Kaduna, Lagos, Bauchi and Port Harcourt.
The SEE Pakistan World Startup Championship was organised by OIC-COMSTECH in collaboration with the Association of Private Sector Universities Pakistan (APSUP).
