The Nigeria Computer Society has formally announced its International Conference 2026, bringing together over 2,000 technology leaders, policymakers, academics, entrepreneurs, and innovators in Jos, Plateau State, for what promises to be one of the largest technology gatherings on the African continent this year.
Themed “Harnessing Digital Innovation and Emerging Technologies for Inclusive Growth and Economic Renaissance”, and branded RISE 2026, the conference will run from Monday, July 27, to Thursday, July 30, 2026, at the Crispan Hotel, Rayfield, Jos.
It will be delivered as a hybrid event, enabling both in-person and virtual participation from across Nigeria and the global technology community.
Professor Muhammad Sirajo Aliyu, NCS president, made the announcement at a press briefing in Lagos, describing the conference as more than a professional gathering.
“Today, we gather not merely to announce another conference, but to unveil a national and global platform for dialogue, innovation, collaboration, and transformation at a defining moment in our country’s history,” he said.
The timing and the argument
Prof. Aliyu framed RISE 2026 explicitly around the convergence of two realities: the mounting socio-economic pressures facing Nigeria, unemployment, digital inequality, inflationary stress, infrastructure deficits, and the simultaneous arrival of transformative technologies that have the potential to address them.
“Humanity stands on the threshold of the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions, powered by Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Blockchain, Robotics, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, Biotechnology, and Data Science,” he said, arguing that Nigeria’s young, innovative population represented both the country’s greatest asset and its most urgent policy challenge.
“The challenge before us is how to effectively harness technology as a strategic instrument for economic revitalisation, job creation, social inclusion, improved governance, and national competitiveness. This is precisely why RISE 2026 is both timely and necessary.”
Why Jos
The choice of venue carries deliberate strategic significance. The NCS has maintained a tradition of rotating its international conference across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones, a practice designed to ensure that technology discourse, investment, and visibility are not permanently concentrated in Lagos and Abuja.
Plateau State, the NCS President argued, represents the untapped potential of Nigeria’s emerging innovation hubs beyond the established technology corridors.
“Hosting RISE 2026 in Jos aligns with our commitment to ensuring that technological development reaches every region of the country,” Prof. Aliyu said.
Conference architecture
RISE 2026 will feature fifteen sub-thematic tracks spanning the full breadth of the contemporary technology agenda: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems; Cybersecurity, Digital Trust and Data Protection; Fintech and Digital Financial Inclusion; Blockchain and Decentralised Systems; Cloud Computing and Digital Infrastructure; Big Data Analytics; Smart Governance and E-Government; Internet of Things and Smart Cities; Digital Health and Health Informatics; Education Technology; Sustainable Technologies and Green Computing; Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing; Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startup Ecosystems; Emerging Technologies for Economic Growth; and Digital Inclusion.
Programming will include keynote addresses, technical paper presentations, research sessions, innovation and startup exhibitions, technology product showcases, youth innovation challenges and hackathons, executive leadership forums, industry roundtables, and awards and recognition ceremonies.
High-profile speaker line-up
The conference has secured a significant roster of government and institutional voices whose presence signals the event’s policy weight. Confirmed special guests include Plateau State Governor Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang; Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; Dr. Vincent O. Olatunji, National Commissioner and CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission; Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, Director General of the National Identity Management Commission; Mrs. Jane Egerton-Idehen, Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT; Professor Ibrahim Adepoju Adeyanju, Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone; Mr. Adesola Akinsanya, President of the Nigerian Internet Registration Association; and Dr. Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The convergence of the NCC’s chief executive, the NIMC Director General, the NDPC Commissioner, and the Minister of Communications on a single platform makes RISE 2026 one of the most significant gatherings of Nigeria’s digital regulatory and institutional leadership outside of formal government settings.
The policy conversations that emerge from that concentration of institutional authority, on data protection, identity infrastructure, spectrum governance, and digital economy regulation, are likely to carry weight beyond the conference itself.
The broader mission
Prof. Aliyu closed his address with language that positioned RISE 2026 less as an annual professional event and more as a deliberate moment of national reckoning with Nigeria’s technology future.
“History teaches us that nations that embrace innovation prosper, while those that resist change risk being left behind,” he said. “Nigeria possesses the talent. Nigeria possesses the creativity. Nigeria possesses the entrepreneurial spirit. What remains is our collective determination to build an ecosystem that enables innovation to flourish and translate into broad-based economic prosperity.”
He described RISE 2026 as “a movement, a platform for ideas, a catalyst for transformation, and a call to national renewal through technology”, and urged governments, corporations, startups, development partners, researchers, and students to participate.
For an organisation that has spent over four decades at the centre of Nigeria’s technology policy advocacy, the NCS’s decision to anchor its 2026 international conference in Jos, with the country’s most senior digital economy officials in attendance and fifteen thematic tracks covering the full spectrum of emerging technology challenges, represents both a statement of institutional ambition and a deliberate challenge to the assumption that Nigeria’s technology future will be determined only in its two largest cities.
How to participate:
Registration and participation details for RISE 2026 are available here.
