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The Federal Government is developing a National Innovation Hub Standards Framework aimed at establishing common standards for more than 339 innovation hubs across Nigeria and strengthening their capacity to support startups, entrepreneurs and technology-driven businesses.
The initiative, led by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), is designed to make Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem more coordinated and geographically inclusive, particularly as many existing hubs remain concentrated in Lagos, Abuja and a handful of other states.
Framework to Give Hubs a Clear Growth Path
NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, disclosed the plans at the National Innovation Hub Standards Framework Validation Workshop in Abuja.
According to Inuwa, NITDA’s mapping exercise identified more than 339 innovation hubs across the country, although a large proportion are located in Lagos, Abuja and about 10 other states.
The proposed framework is not intended to impose rigid operating requirements on hub operators. Instead, it will provide a structured guide through which hubs can evaluate their capabilities, identify weaknesses and determine how to improve their maturity.
The draft framework contains seven dimensions and about 35 assessment criteria, giving operators measurable benchmarks for assessing their infrastructure, capabilities and development needs.
Inuwa said the objective is not to reproduce Lagos’ Yaba technology ecosystem in every part of Nigeria. Rather, states are expected to develop innovation environments around their own economic strengths, local talent and specific challenges.
The approach is intended to ensure that entrepreneurs in places such as Yola do not have to relocate to Lagos simply to access the support required to develop their businesses.
Government Wants Stronger Support Systems for Startups
The framework comes against the backdrop of growing recognition that startups need more than digital infrastructure to survive and scale.
Innovation hubs, co-working spaces, incubators and other entrepreneurship-support organisations provide entrepreneurs with access to mentorship, talent, funding networks and business development opportunities.
Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Minister Bosun Tijani said these support systems are critical to ensuring that investments in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure translate into businesses, jobs and broader economic activity.
Tijani explained that Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda rests on three interconnected layers: foundational infrastructure, technology platforms and the applications and businesses built by innovators.
The infrastructure layer includes fibre networks, telecommunications towers, satellites and data centres, while the technology layer encompasses systems such as digital identity, payments and data exchange platforms.
The third layer consists of the products and businesses entrepreneurs develop using those foundations.
90,000km Fibre Network, 3,700 Towers
The minister said the government is investing heavily in the underlying infrastructure needed to expand digital opportunities.
Among the initiatives highlighted are plans for a 90,000-kilometre fibre-optic network and the deployment of about 3,700 telecommunications towers in underserved communities.
According to Tijani, more than 20 million Nigerians still live in communities without adequate telecommunications access, making infrastructure expansion an important component of the country’s digital-economy strategy.
However, he stressed that connectivity infrastructure alone would not deliver the desired economic transformation without stronger ecosystems capable of turning access to technology into viable businesses.
Private Capital, Universities Critical to Growth
NITDA also stressed that government cannot finance the country’s innovation ecosystem alone.
Inuwa identified talent, entrepreneurs, risk capital, corporate organisations and government as important components of a sustainable innovation ecosystem, calling for closer cooperation among these groups.
He also highlighted the need to improve collaboration between universities and industry.
NITDA is working with the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission to better align academic programmes with the needs of the technology sector, including areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics.
The aim is to ensure that universities contribute more directly to the development of the talent and research required to support technology businesses.
EU Backs Standardisation Effort
The proposed framework has also attracted support from international development partners.
The European Union described innovation hubs as important connective infrastructure within Nigeria’s digital economy, while highlighting the need for the country’s rapidly expanding ecosystem to be matched with appropriate standards.
The EU and its Team Europe partners are supporting Nigeria’s digital ecosystem with more than €820 million between 2021 and 2027, including initiatives focused on digital transformation and technical talent.
The bloc indicated that it could help connect Nigeria’s framework with European certification providers, research institutions and technology companies.
Hubs Could Help Spread Economic Opportunity
Victoria Fabunmi, National Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), said stronger innovation hubs would improve the support available to startups and help distribute technological opportunity more evenly across the country.
The objective, she said, is to see states such as Zamfara, Yobe, Osun and Jigawa develop stronger technology ecosystems instead of having innovation concentrated primarily in Nigeria’s biggest commercial centres.
A more distributed ecosystem could also create new opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and investment outside Lagos and Abuja.
The Bigger Picture
Nigeria’s proposed innovation-hub standards framework represents an attempt to address a structural weakness in the country’s technology ecosystem: rapid growth without an equally distributed support system.
The country has accumulated hundreds of innovation hubs, but their concentration in a relatively small number of states means entrepreneurs in other regions may still struggle to access mentorship, capital, infrastructure and market connections.
By introducing a common assessment framework while allowing individual states and hubs to build around their local strengths, the Federal Government is seeking to move from simply counting innovation hubs to improving their quality and impact.
The framework remains a draft, and NITDA has called on hub operators, investors, development partners, government agencies and academia to contribute to its refinement before final adoption.
If successfully implemented, the initiative could help transform innovation hubs from isolated technology spaces into a more connected national network capable of producing startups, talent and digital businesses from across Nigeria not just from Lagos and Abuja.
