By CHIDIEBERE NWANKWO
Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has called for accelerated support for youths in the country, in a bid to harness their technology skills and innovativeness towards economic development.
Speaking at the just concluded Zenith Bank Tech Fair, themed Future Forward 5.0, the governor expressed his satisfaction at the new crop of youth innovators, and called on Zenith Bank to increase the number of winners in subsequent editions.
The event, which held in Lagos on Thursday, saw a gathering of tech enthusiasts watch as startups pitched for prizes in the Hackathon Innovation challenge.
Governor Sanwo-Olu applauded the Pitch competitors, noting that they have brought to life, challenges that need to be addressed, and proffered solutions “in faster, quicker and smarter” ways.
“This is an activation that can bring life and real conversation to the young, dynamic, innovative, creative young people that we have in this country. I get thrilled when each and every of these pitches came forward, and the MD was asking who would I go for, I said all of them. You know, from the guy that is teaching all the tutorials in the university, to the young lady that is talking about the menstrual sanitary pad and all the innovative ideas that she brings about, to someone talking about exchange convertibility, who I was telling the CBN director that if we are not careful, these guys are already far ahead of us.
These things, they will do them far out of banking industry, and this will happen. And you can begin to see that our young people have the mind.
But we need to give them different platforms. The ones that will win the awards here, there are several, several others that don’t have the opportunity, that are not in this room. We need to be able to create those activities and those platforms from there.”
He therefore urged Zenith Bank to double the number of winners in the 2026 edition to afford more youths chances of scaling their innovations.
“We’re going to ensure that we can coach a lot more people. We’re going to support a lot more people. Because when we say that almost 75% of our population are young, dynamic, innovative, creative minds,” the governor assured.
He further stated his government’s commitment to scaling the support. He further revealed his plan towards training about 50,000 tech experts. “We want to be able to pay for their tuition. We want to be able to take them to the next level. We want to take 50,000 all at once.”
The Governor laid down his vision for Lagos State tech ecosystem. “And part of our vision, Mr. Ovie, is that by 2050, we want to make Lagos the human capital center of the world. To these young people, where Microsoft will think of raising a million tech experts, they’ll think of Lagos. Google and all of them will think of 500,000 tech experts, and the first thing they’ll think of is Nigeria and Lagos.”
He called on all stakeholders to try and replicate what the Unicorns that have gone ahead did by supporting innovative youths, so as to make Nigeria a destination for tech innovation.
In his goodwill message, Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, represented by the State’s Head of Service, Abubarka Sadiq Idris applauded the idea behind the event, noting that it is targeted towards success, innovation, and also accelerates innovation adoption. He pointed out that no institution, public or private, can succeed without the development of technology. He said that Niger State recognises that technology is central to improving public service, and is therefore strengthening transparency, building efficiency, and expanding opportunities in young people. “We therefore are committed to partnership that promotes digital schemes, automation, and innovation. Today’s Fair brings together industry leaders, innovators, startups, and experts exploring critical areas such as AI, blockchain, robotics, automation, and natural language processing.
These conversations are essential as Nigeria continues to position itself for global competitiveness. On behalf of the United States, I appreciate the Bank for its leadership and investment in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. I encourage all participants to make the most of these sessions.”
In her welcome address, the Group Managing Director/CEO, Zenith Bank, Dame Dr. Adaora Umeoji explained that the essence of the tech fair is to identify, nurture, and be able to finance more inventors.
She enthused: “This is a proof that transformative technology is not confined alone to Silicon Valley. We used to hear a lot about Silicon Valley, but believe me, Silicon Valley is not up to Nigeria. Nigerian innovators are coming up and building solutions that are not only competitive, but globally relevant.
The lesson is simple. The next technological breakthrough will not take a lifetime. It will emerge sooner than you expect, and it will come from many of you in this room today.”
She encouraged all startups, entrepreneurs, and new tech talents to be passionate enough to bring forth good ideas that will be tomorrow’s breakthrough innovations, and assured that Zenith Bank will turn those dreams into reality, because the Bank understands the transformative power of technology.
According to the organisers, prior to the finals, the Business Pitch had a total of 1586 entries, out of which 20 were selected for the qualifying pitch, where 5 made it to the finals. The Solution Hackathon had 492 entries, 25 selected for the qualifying pitch, and 5 came out for the final session.
Five innovators pitched for the Business Pitch segment, while five others went for the Solution Pitch challenge. Each category winner took home N30 million, while the other participants went home with N10 million each.
The event also features exhibitions by tech companies and Masterclasses.
