The Federal Government has launched the National Cleantech Innovation Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (CIEE) to provide a competitive business acceleration platform for innovative startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology (IST), Chief Uche Nnaji disclosed this at the launch event in Abuja, organised by the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) Nigeria, a UNIDO-led initiative sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The minister emphasised that the CIEE journey will foster an enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship, marking a transformative change for Nigeria. “The launch of the CIEE is a testament to our commitment to supporting emerging SMEs offering innovative Cleantech solutions, driving Nigeria’s economic development, enhancing renewable energy access and contributing to broader climate change actions,” he said.
Nnaji noted that the challenges facing these enterprises include insufficient policy and regulatory support, limited financing opportunities, and a generally weak innovation ecosystem. He highlighted that the GCIP framework is structured around three pillars: transforming early-stage innovative Cleantech solutions into scalable enterprises, strengthening and connecting the Cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and ensuring effective project coordination and coherence.
“Under the already completed Component 1, we successfully provided technical assistance, adapted the GCIP guidebooks for Nigeria and conducted three cycles of the GCIP Nigeria Accelerator. Entrepreneurship experts were trained, certified, linked to enterprises and some financing opportunities were provided. Today, we focus on Component 2, led by the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology (FMIST), with valuable support from UNIDO,” he said.
Component 2 aims to build, strengthen and interconnect the institutional capacity of CIEE actors, including the FMIST and the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI). This involves developing policies, regulations and recommendations, promoting linkages and collaborations across global CIEEs and ensuring gender and youth mainstreaming.
Activities for implementation under Component 2 include the inception and launch of the second component, train-the-trainer and awareness workshops within the ministry and ongoing policy localisation efforts. The ministry is also expanding the call for applications through its website to engage a broader range of agencies and Inventors.
“The expected outcomes of our collective efforts include enhanced knowledge creation and exchange, capacity building, development of an innovation strategy framework aligned with Nigeria’s climate action and decarbonisation pathways, and the establishment of a cleantech delivery framework. We also aim to foster a national forum to enhance networking and the exchange of lessons learned,” Nnaji added.
Director-general of the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) Abuja, Dr. Uchenna Chukwu emphasised that innovative entrepreneurship is integral to technology commercialisation, wealth creation, employment generation, enhanced global competitiveness and value reorientation. He explained that the NBTI concept is to provide entrepreneurs who are into value-added technology-based projects with affordable facilities such as factory-like spaces, central workshops and analytical equipment, quality control laboratories, and hands-on management assistance, among other critical business, technical and legal support services in technology incubation centres (TICs).
The national programme coordinator for environment and energy at the UNIDO regional office in Nigeria, Mr. Oluyomi Banjo stated that the CIEE will create an environment where Cleantech enterprises can thrive. He emphasised the need for clean technologies in Nigeria, leveraging the country’s youthful population as an advantage for driving Cleantech development and application.
“The GCIP works directly with entrepreneurs by providing business training and facilitating connections with finance. It also looks at the overall Cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, contributing to creating an environment where Cleantech enterprises can thrive. Presently, through Co-creation Hub, we have delivered two sets of accelerated cohorts SMEs that have won global awards at Vienna, Austria for two consecutive years. This shows that Nigeria has the capacity but needs an effective Cleantech innovation ecosystem,” Banjo said.
In appreciation, Banjo thanked the Minister of IST and the ministry for their commitment to improving Cleantech in Nigeria. He reaffirmed UNIDO’s commitment to working with the Nigerian government and the private sector towards achieving inclusive and sustainable industrial development without compromising environmental quality.
