By Gabriel Ameh
An Abia State innovator has won a ₦100 million prize at the 2026 InnovateNaija Final Pitch Event and Awards Ceremony in Abuja, as the Federal Government steps up efforts to support Nigerian-made technology and turn local innovations into viable businesses.
Adaeze Ruth Akpagbula, co-founder of Farm Speak and developer of the PenKeep Smart Poultry Climate Control System, emerged as the overall winner of the competition, which featured young innovators from Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the event, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, said the quality of solutions presented by the innovators showed that young Nigerians have the capacity to develop technologies capable of solving local problems.
Udeh said the administration was focused on taking Nigerian innovations beyond prototypes by linking researchers and innovators with investors, industries and other stakeholders who can help commercialise their solutions.
According to him, successful commercialisation of research and innovation would generate revenue, create jobs and business opportunities, stimulate economic growth and improve livelihoods, particularly at the grassroots.
The minister also disclosed that President Tinubu had forwarded a bill to the National Assembly seeking the establishment of a National Research and Innovation Development Fund.
The proposed fund, he said, would provide dedicated support for research, inventions and innovations with commercial potential.
Udeh further urged Nigerians to develop greater confidence in locally manufactured products, stressing that Nigerian-made goods should compete on the basis of quality rather than patriotism alone.
The event was organised by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), in partnership with AfriLabs, as part of efforts to identify, support and commercialise innovative solutions developed by Nigerians.
NASENI Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, said the agency was repositioning its research and development activities around three principles: Creation, Collaboration and Commercialisation.
He said NASENI’s innovation programmes were designed to close the gap between research and the marketplace by helping innovators transform ideas into viable businesses and industrial solutions.
Beyond the InnovateNaija award, NASENI also recognised winners of its Inter-Agency and Intra-Agency Innovation competitions.
Three Inter-Agency winners received development grants totalling ₦140 million, while three Intra-Agency winners received ₦22.5 million in cash prizes.
AfriLabs Director of Programmes, Nanko Madu, said InnovateNaija and the FutureMakers programme had reached more than 3,500 young Nigerians across the 36 states and the FCT.
She said InnovateNaija was created to identify Nigerians developing solutions in areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy, education, healthcare and climate technology.
The programme produced 36 state champions, with each initially receiving ₦2.5 million, while the top three national winners received ₦100 million, ₦30 million and ₦20 million respectively.
Madu added that the governors of Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Plateau and Kaduna states had matched the ₦2.5 million grants received by their respective state champions, increasing the support to ₦5 million each.
For Akpagbula, the ₦100 million award could provide the push needed to take her climate-smart agricultural technology to more farmers.
She said the PenKeep system was developed to help farmers monitor and control environmental conditions in poultry farms, aquaculture facilities, greenhouses and smart irrigation systems.
According to her, farmers can lose significant portions of their produce because of climate-related challenges, making affordable climate-smart technologies important for improving productivity and reducing losses.
The agricultural engineer, who co-founded Farm Speak with her husband, Kita Okoma, identified funding and infrastructure as some of the major challenges facing hardware innovators in Nigeria.
She said the ₦100 million prize would help the company expand its production capacity and scale the technology to reach more farmers.
Meanwhile, Anambra State’s Special Adviser to the Governor on Innovation and Business Incubation, Chinwe Okoli, said the state government had immediately approved matching funds for its state champion after being approached by NASENI.
Representing Governor Chukwuma Soludo at the ceremony, Okoli said the initiative aligned with Anambra’s technology-driven development agenda.
She disclosed that 111 startups had received about ₦364 million through various state programmes, while 264,000 people had been trained in digital skills.
She also said the state was developing a 13.7-hectare Solution Innovation District at the old government house to provide space and support for startups, innovators and technology entrepreneurs.
Head of the NASENI Innovation Hub, Busola Perez-Folayan, said the innovation programmes were structured to identify talents beyond Nigeria’s established technology ecosystem.
She said InnovateNaija received more than 1,000 applications before public voting produced 36 state winners and the final 15 national champions.
Perez-Folayan added that NASENI’s FutureMakers programme was designed to nurture innovation among children aged five to 16, while the agency’s Inter-Agency and Intra-Agency competitions encourage civil and public servants to develop solutions to national challenges.
She said NASENI would continue supporting the innovators through incubation, business development, investor matching and technical assistance aimed at turning their ideas into sustainable enterprises.
The InnovateNaija initiative highlights a growing push to move Nigerian innovation from laboratories and workshops into the marketplace, with government, investors, industries and state governments playing a bigger role in helping young innovators build businesses around locally developed solutions.
Credit: Media360Impact / Source information from the 2026 InnovateNaija Final Pitch Event and Awards Ceremony.
