NICE is a landmark pilot designed to bridge the structural gaps in Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem; funded by the UK-Nigeria tech hub, Under the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme and implemented by The Nest Innovation Technology Park.

While Nigeria’s startup ecosystem has expanded rapidly across FinTech, Agri-Tech, Cyber Tech and HealthTech, it remains critically fragmented. Currently, Entrepreneurship Support Organizations (ESOs), research centers, and hubs often operate in silos, leading to a duplication of effort and limited sustainability for the startups they support.

NICE responds by organizing these disparate actors into a coordinated, data-driven national network.

“Today, we are moving from celebrating isolated pockets of brilliance to engineering a collective national engine for growth,” said Oluwajoba Oloba, the 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.”

Developed with insights from the 2025 UK Digital Trade and Innovation Tour, coordinated by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub in collaboration with the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), NICE adapts global best practices to the Nigerian context. The initiative aims to tackle the “coordination deficit” in a country where National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data shows over 53% youth underemployment, and fewer than 10% of startups survive beyond their third year.

The pilot programme will strengthen Nigeria’s innovation clusters, defined as geographically and sectorally concentrated networks of ESOs, startups, manufacturing firms, and state agencies through four primary objectives:

1. Cluster Mapping & Activation: Identifying and formalizing innovation clusters across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to create a validated intelligence resource for investors and policymakers.
2. Knowledge Mobility: A bilateral exchange enabling structured knowledge transfer through short-term expert-residencies between Nigerian clusters and United Kingdom innovation counterparts.
3. Collaborative Prototyping: Facilitating joint “innovation sprints” where Nigerian clusters and UK experts co-create market-ready solutions for local challenges.
4. Sustainability & Ownership: Implementing a local stewardship model to ensure clusters remain self-governing and resilient long after the pilot phase.
5. Economic Impact: NICE targets sectors vital to national diversification, including Agri-Tech for food security, Cyber Tech, and Health Tech. By facilitating cross-cluster learning and expert mobility, the programme ensures that the support provided by incubators and accelerators is no longer limited by geography but powered by a national exchange.

The NICE pilot phase begins on July 6th, 2026. ESOs, research institutions, and industry stakeholders are invited to participate.

For more information… Visit: https://nice-rust.vercel.app/

The Partners

The UK-Nigeria Tech Hub: The UK‑Nigeria Tech Hub, part of the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme, delivers the FCDO’s Digital Development Strategy by supporting inclusive, responsible, and sustainable digital transformation in Nigeria’s tech and digital innovation sectors

The Nest Innovation Technology Park – The Nest is a leading African innovation hub and ESO. It provides the incubation, research, and policy frameworks necessary to help founders, researchers, and technical talent build sustainable, high-impact innovation systems.

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Research suggests that the first 3-5 years are among the most crucial: those are the years where many firms either establish strong operational discipline, leadership resilience, and access to networks, or they collapse under cumulative burdens of cash flow problems, burn-out, and governance lapses.

According to the African Future Leadership, Over 60% of Nigerian startups fail within their first two years, primarily due to leadership shortcomings.  Additionally, Approximately 70% of startups globally fail by the fifth year of operation.

Let’s imagine one of those mornings that founders dread. Laptops open, spreadsheets flashing red, and a team trying to make sense of what just happened.

For Ada and her two-person crew wearing all the hats of business dev, admin, accounts, compliance, COO, CTO, CRM, the news of their investor pulling out hit like a power surge – unexpected and destabilizing.

By noon, she had already opened ten tabs on her browser, searching for grants, accelerators, and anything that could keep their dream afloat.

Then, in a startup forum thread buzzing with stories, a headline (or lifeline if you will) caught her eye: “Applications open for the Foundry for HER Bootcamp.”

At first, Ada almost scrolled past it. But as she read on, the description stopped her. This didn’t seem like another generic training. It was a focused accelerator built for women like her, founders who had bold ideas but limited access to capital, networks, or mentorship.

Programs like this often provide the bedrock on which many Nigerian and African tech entrepreneurs are able to exist while building their solutions.

Officially announced in early September 2025, the Foundry for HER Bootcamp, powered by Aurora Tech Award in partnership with The Nest Innovation Technology Park Ltd, is a three-day virtual accelerator designed exclusively for early-stage women-led tech startups in Nigeria.

Running from October 15 to 17, 2025, the program promises to deliver practical tools, expert mentorship, and investor readiness strategies to help founders like Ada not just survive, but scale. Over 120 female founders will be trained in critical growth areas such as fundraising, pitching, and expanding beyond local markets, with masterclasses led by some of Africa’s most seasoned investors and ecosystem builders.

Speaking on the initiative, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, head of the Aurora Tech Award, said:

“At Aurora Tech Award, we focus on one thing: giving the world’s boldest women founders the fast track to scale. Nigeria has already proven itself on the global stage through our past winners, and with the Foundry for HER Bootcamp, we’re doubling down, giving early-stage founders the tools, network, and visibility to compete at the highest level.”

That night, Ada didn’t sleep much. But for the first time in weeks, her thoughts weren’t about what her startup had lost, they were about what it could become.

Because sometimes, the turning point for a startup isn’t a new investor. It’s the right opportunity. The Aurora Tech Award is a prestigious annual global prize set up by inDrive for women entrepreneurs in IT. Its goal is to give global recognition to emerging markets’ boldest female tech founders.

Following high interest from women founders across the country, the deadline for applications for this bootcamp intervention has now been extended till October 9, 2025, giving more startups the opportunity to take part in the transformative experience.

Apply for the Foundry for HER bootcamp here. For Aurora Tech Award, see details here.

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Running from October 15–17, 2025, the bootcamp will equip female founders with the practical tools, expert mentorship, and investor readiness needed to scale  and successfully apply for the global Aurora Tech Award Open Call 2026.

Applications for the fully online bootcamp are open from September 8 to October 3, 2025.  The three-day program (October 15–17, 2025) will train 120 early-stage women founders from Nigeria in core areas such as  pitching, fundraising, and scaling beyond local markets, with sessions led by top ecosystem leaders and investors.

If you are a female founder or team lead of a Nigeria-based startup under five years old, founded or co-founded by a woman, apply now via link.

Nigeria is home to one of Africa’s most vibrant startup ecosystems, yet female founders still face significant barriers to capital and visibility. By partnering with The Nest Innovation Technology Park, a focal point for entrepreneurial innovation in Lagos, the Aurora Tech Award is ensuring that women entrepreneurs  access  knowledge, networks, and opportunities that enable long-term success.

“At Aurora Tech Award, we focus on one thing: giving the world’s boldest women founders the fast track to scale. Nigeria has already proven itself on the global stage through our past winners, and with the Foundry for HER Bootcamp we’re doubling down, giving early-stage founders the tools, network, and visibility to scale their companies and compete at the highest level”, said Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, head of the Aurora Tech Award.

Nigerian founders have won the Aurora Tech Award for two consecutive years: Folake Owodunni, founder of Emergency Response Africa (2024), and Solape Akinpelu, Co-Founder and CEO of HerVest (2025) Their success not only highlights the strength of Nigeria’s women-led startups on the global stage, but also provides inspiration for the next generation of founders.

“The Aurora Tech Award is more than recognition, it’s the opportunity to be part of a community that champions women in tech who are shaping the future. This award isn’t just mine, it belongs to every woman who dares to dream, build, and lead in spaces where she wasn’t expected to be. I’m proud to stand alongside bold founders creating high-growth businesses, not just for themselves but for others to follow,” said Solape Akinpelu, Nigerian entrepreneur and 2025 Aurora Tech Award winner.

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