Nigeria Innovation Summit Unveils Date for 2022 Event

Mary Nnah

The Nigeria Innovation Summit (NIS) has announced the seventh edition of its annual event, slated to hold all through one week starting Tuesday October 4 to Saturday October 8, 2022.

Now in its 7th year, the Nigeria Innovation Summit (NIS) is an annual event that brings together stakeholders from different sectors of the economy to discuss ground-breaking ideas, trends, opportunities and numerous verticals to accelerate innovation, attain globally competitiveness and explore present innovative approaches to fixing existing problems, redundant economic playbooks, systems and structures.

Since inception, NIS has recorded thousands of participants, cutting across governments, industry leaders, founders, lawmakers, policymakers, C-Suites, foreign diplomats and key stakeholders, who grace the highly remarkable event annually, to steer pertinent  conversations around innovation, research and development, emerging technologies, frontier markets and industrial disruptions occurring in Nigeria and other African countries.

This year’s summit is themed: “Re-imagining Innovation”, and will stretch through a week as the Nigeria Innovation Week (NIW). Highlights of NIW include the novel Nigeria Innovation Experience Talks (NiX Talks); Press Parley, Innovation Tours, Innovation Awards, the Grand Summit and Private Dinner with key C-Suites, stakeholders & policymakers.

Over the course of seven years, NIS has received participation, support, and partnership from both the private and public sectors such as the NCC, NITDA, ISPIM, Rack Centre,  Israel Startup Network, Asoko Insights, ICT Spring Europe, IdentityPass, The Nest Technology Park, University of Lagos, Switzerland Embassy, South African High Commission, Oxford Business Group, and more.

Through previous editions, the Nigeria Innovation Summit NIS has attracted over 7,000 delegates, 140 speakers and panellists, 60 institutions and research centres, 27 government ministries, attendees from 30 states, over 55 sponsors and partners, 30 countries in attendance, over 70 award recipients and numerous media coverage. These organisations play in key sectors ranging from Governance, Fintech, Information Technology, Retail, eCommerce, Banking & Finance, Agriculture, Healthcare, Logistics, Foreign Relations, Diaspora communities and Foreign Diplomats.

Commenting on this edition, Programme Director at Nigeria Innovation Summit, Tony Ajah,  said, “For the very first time, we’re extending the Summit across a week because we believe the usual two-day event may not thoroughly reflect how innovation and digital technology are causing rapid acceleration across different sectors of the economy. It’s indicative that Nigeria and other emerging nations have recognised digital transformation, emerging technologies, research and development, commercialization, entrepreneurship and investments, as the key value drivers of an innovative ecosystem. It’s now time to embrace these value drivers and NIS will create the much-needed momentum to explore open innovation in Africa”

Also speaking on the event, Grace Akinosun, Partner at Nigeria Innovation Summit said “Innovation remains a  non-exhaustive topic globally. In today’s world, it has become a necessity rather than an option, for corporations, governments and emerging businesses to thrive and keep up with changing functional dynamics. Yet innovation itself may be more complex than given credit for. That’s why it’s important to keep igniting conversations to demystify important frameworks that have proven to work in environments similar to ours. The NIS is designed to be the springboard of such insights  and challenge the minds of stakeholders to begin leveraging innovation for more global competitiveness and digital acceleration. It’s high time Africa took its place as a leading continent on the global innovation index.

The Nigeria Innovation week will witness a plethora of speakers from government institutions, corporate organisations, investment groups, international bodies, research institutions, and leading start-ups in Nigeria and around the world.”

In a few weeks’ time, the Nigeria Innovation Week’s full programme agenda will be unveiled alongside speakers and official partners for this year’s event. To participate in NIS 2022, visit the website as a partner or delegate, register on the website.