Building Tomorrow’s Businesses: How NSIA’s Innovation Prize Is Shaping Nigeria’s Startup Future

By Tobi Adeojo

In July this year, the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) announced three winners of its increasingly influential startup competition, the NSIA Prize for Innovation. The 2025 winners—D-Olivette Labs, Promise Point, and GeroCare—may operate in different sectors, but together they reflect a broader strategy: using catalytic capital, structured mentorship, and global exposure to help build businesses capable of shaping Nigeria’s economic future.

At first glance, the NSIA Prize for Innovation appears to be a conventional startup award. The top three companies received a combined $220,000 in prize funding, drawing predictable media attention to the monetary value of the prize. Yet focusing only on the prize money misses the deeper significance of the programme. The real impact of the NSIA innovation prize lies not in the cheque, but in the process—how it shapes entrepreneurial behaviour, improves business quality, and strengthens Nigeria’s startup ecosystem over the long term.

Each of the 2025 winners addresses a critical challenge in the Nigerian economy.

D-Olivette Labs is reimagining waste management and energy access by converting everyday waste into clean cooking gas, electricity, and nutrient-rich agricultural by-products. In a country grappling with energy poverty and environmental degradation, the company’s model offers a practical, scalable solution with climate and public health benefits.

Promise Point operates at the intersection of agriculture and manufacturing, transforming cassava into premium starch and flour through environmentally responsible processes. Since 2021, the company has produced over 20,000 metric tonnes of cassava-based products, contributing to value addition in Nigeria’s most widely cultivated crop and supporting rural livelihoods.

GeroCare addresses a less visible but growing challenge: elderly healthcare. By connecting licensed doctors to elderly patients in their homes, the platform reduces the stress, cost, and physical burden of hospital visits. Anyone familiar with Nigeria’s teaching hospitals—often overcrowded and difficult to navigate—can immediately appreciate the significance of this model for ageing populations and their families.

While the diversity of these businesses is striking, their selection reveals a consistent investment logic. NSIA is backing companies with the potential for scale, measurable social impact, and long-term commercial viability. This reflects the Authority’s broader mandate as a sovereign investment institution focused not on short-term gains, but on sustainable economic transformation.

The innovation prize process itself has become one of NSIA’s most powerful interventions. Each year, more than 5,000 startups apply. That level of participation alone reshapes the competitive landscape. Thousands of founders are forced to refine their ideas, articulate value propositions, develop business models, and present credible growth strategies—whether or not they ultimately win.

While over 99 per cent of applicants do not receive prizes, the learning is not lost. The discipline of preparing for such a rigorous, multi-stage selection process raises the overall quality of startups in the market. In this sense, the competition functions as a nationwide accelerator, indirectly strengthening Nigeria’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Beyond competition, NSIA injects what many founders describe as the most valuable form of financing: patient capital. The prize funding—structured through a mix of cash and equity—allows winning startups to build, test, and scale without the immediate pressure for short-term returns. In a capital-constrained environment like Nigeria’s, patient capital can mean the difference between premature failure and sustainable growth.

Equally important is the mentorship embedded in the programme. Through the innovation prize, startups gain access to experienced professionals across finance, operations, technology, and strategy. For early-stage companies, this kind of guidance is often prohibitively expensive. NSIA effectively provides a long-term advisory layer, helping founders navigate industry dynamics, regulatory challenges, and macroeconomic risks.

The final element of the programme—international exposure—cements its long-term value. As part of the prize, winning startups participate in an intensive programme in Silicon Valley, the global epicentre of technology entrepreneurship. There, founders are exposed to best practices in governance, product development, fundraising, and scaling, while building networks that would otherwise be difficult to access.

For many Nigerian startups, this experience is transformative. It reframes ambition, raises standards, and introduces global benchmarks that founders bring back into the local ecosystem.

It is tempting to dismiss early-stage innovation competitions as symbolic or speculative. After all, not every startup will grow into a market leader. Yet this view is short-sighted. The nine companies that have emerged as top winners across editions of the NSIA Prize for Innovation are already reshaping their respective sectors. More importantly, they are improving lives—whether by expanding access to energy, strengthening food value chains, or delivering dignified healthcare to the elderly.

From NSIA’s perspective, the innovation prize also represents a strategic investment. As an equity participant, the Authority stands to benefit from the long-term success of these companies. Should even one mature into a major enterprise, the returns could far exceed the initial prize funding—making the programme not only impactful, but financially prudent.

In that sense, the NSIA Prize for Innovation captures the essence of catalytic investing. It deploys relatively modest capital, leverages partnerships and expertise, and generates outsized economic and social returns. The prize money may attract headlines, but the real story lies in the businesses being built—and the future they represent.