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The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, in partnership with The Nest Innovation Technology Park, has launched the Nigeria Innovation Cluster Exchange (NICE), a new national initiative designed to strengthen collaboration across Nigeria’s fragmented innovation ecosystem.
This was disclosed in a joint statement issued by the two organisations on Monday.
Funded by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub under the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme and implemented by The Nest Innovation Technology Park, the pilot programme seeks to connect Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs), research institutions, startups and government agencies into a coordinated national innovation network.
The initiative comes as Nigeria’s startup ecosystem continues to expand across sectors such as fintech, agritech, healthtech and cybersecurity, despite persistent challenges around collaboration, funding and long-term sustainability.
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What they are saying
According to the statement, Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem has grown rapidly over the years, but many incubators, accelerators, research centres and innovation hubs continue to operate independently, resulting in duplicated efforts and limited support for startups.
The Nigeria Innovation Cluster Exchange is expected to address this challenge by creating a structured, data-driven network that enables knowledge sharing, collaboration and stronger coordination among ecosystem players.
- “Today, we are moving from celebrating isolated pockets of brilliance to engineering a collective national engine for growth,” said Oluwajoba Oloba, Co-founder of The Nest Innovation Technology Park.
- “NICE provides architecture to unify our myriad of ESOs and startups, allowing them to function like a coordinated army of ants. We are not just launching a programme; we are activating the connective tissue Nigeria’s economy has long demanded,” he added.
The initiative was developed using insights from the 2025 UK Digital Trade and Innovation Tour, organised by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub in collaboration with the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI).
The organizations noted that NICE adapts global innovation cluster models to Nigeria’s local realities, particularly as the country grapples with youth unemployment and startup sustainability challenges.
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Citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), The Nest noted that more than 53% of young Nigerians are underemployed, while fewer than 10% of startups survive beyond their third year.
The pilot programme will focus on four key areas, including mapping and formalising innovation clusters across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, promoting knowledge exchange between Nigerian and UK innovation ecosystems, facilitating collaborative product development, and establishing governance structures that enable clusters to operate independently after the pilot phase.
The organisations said the programme will also target sectors considered critical to Nigeria’s economic diversification, including agritech, cybersecurity and healthtech, by enabling innovation hubs across different regions to share expertise and resources.
According to UK-Nigeria Tech Hub and The Nest, the initiative is expected to improve access to support for startups by ensuring that incubation and acceleration services are no longer constrained by geography but connected through a national exchange network.
The pilot phase of the Nigeria Innovation Cluster Exchange begins on July 6, 2026, with Entrepreneurship Support Organisations, research institutions and other industry stakeholders invited to participate.
What you should know
Earlier in April, the UK-Nigeria Tech Hu, a part of the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme, launched its Creative Fund, a first-phase grants initiative aimed at closing critical technical capacity gaps across Nigeria’s film, fashion and music industries.
The fund is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s creative value chain by supporting local digital production capacity, encouraging the adoption of modern creative technologies and promoting the responsible use of artificial intelligence.
According to the organization, the initiative aligns with the priorities of the UK-Nigeria Economic Transformation and Investment Partnership Creatives Working Group launched in March 2025, while also delivering on commitments made during President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom in March 2026.
