The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has reaffirmed its commitment to promoting entrepreneurship, job creation and economic development through strategic investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with emphasis on equipping Nigerian innovators with the funding, training and exposure needed to scale their businesses.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NSIA, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said the authority considers support for entrepreneurs a critical component of its investment strategy, alongside its primary focus on infrastructure development.
Umar-Sadiq stated this during an interview on the NSIA Prize for Innovation (NPI), explaining that SMEs remain essential to job creation and sustainable economic growth.
According to him, the authority has supported entrepreneurship through initiatives such as the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria, the Development Bank of Nigeria, and the NSIA Prize for Innovation.
He said the programme was designed to provide promising Nigerian innovators with three essential resources: education, equity funding and exposure.
“Without SMEs, there can be no meaningful job creation. Without SMEs, it is difficult to achieve economic growth,” he said.
Umar-Sadiq explained that the programme adopts a broad-based approach to innovation, with this year’s edition focusing on healthcare, manufacturing and food systems.
He noted that the selection of the three sectors was not intended to undermine other areas of the economy but to identify innovative business ideas with significant potential for job creation, growth and scalability.
According to him, the programme’s development over the past four years demonstrates NSIA’s commitment to expanding opportunities for entrepreneurs and strengthening partnerships that support business growth.
He added that the initiative had continued to evolve in terms of prize funding, strategic partnerships and the number of entrepreneurs it could support.
$350,000 Equity Funding, Training for Innovators
On the benefits available to participants, the NSIA chief executive disclosed that the programme offers $350,000 in equity funding, alongside accelerator programmes and specialised business education.
He explained that the top 200 participants would receive accelerator support to refine their business ideas and strengthen their capacity to attract investment.
The programme will subsequently select 12 finalists who will participate in a six-week learning programme at Lagos Business School following Demo Day.
Umar-Sadiq said strategic partners, including Wema Bank, Pula and CASCADOR, had also joined the initiative to provide additional prizes and support to selected finalists.
He stressed that the combination of education, equity and exposure was central to the programme’s strategy of helping Nigerian innovators transform their ideas into viable businesses.
On monitoring the impact of investments, he said NSIA works closely with the management teams of businesses receiving equity funding to strengthen their value propositions, improve corporate governance and expand market demand for their products.
He described value creation as a long-term process that would help promising businesses achieve sustainable growth and potentially produce globally competitive companies.
NSIA Optimistic About Previous Winners
Assessing the performance of previous beneficiaries, Umar-Sadiq cited Money Africa and Sycamore as examples of businesses that had recorded progress since participating in the initiative.
He, however, cautioned against judging the performance of start-ups within only one or two years, noting that a period of about five years would provide a more meaningful basis for assessing their growth and market traction.
He expressed optimism about the future of Nigerian entrepreneurship, citing the ambition, creativity, initiative and innovative capacity of local business owners.
According to him, sustained support and a long-term investment outlook remain important to helping entrepreneurs build successful and resilient businesses.
CASCADOR Targets Growth-Stage Businesses
Also speaking during the interview, David Delucia, Co-Founder of the CASCADOR programme, said the initiative complements the NSIA Prize for Innovation by supporting entrepreneurs whose businesses have progressed beyond the early stages of development.
Delucia explained that while the NPI identifies promising innovators and helps them develop their ideas, CASCADOR focuses on businesses at the growth stage, providing the training and support required to expand their operations.
He said many promising Nigerian entrepreneurs needed more than innovative ideas to build successful companies, stressing that business training and investment readiness were necessary to attract capital and achieve sustainable growth.
According to him, the NSIA programme provides an important platform for identifying talented innovators, while CASCADOR helps prepare growth-stage businesses to convert their ideas into larger and more sustainable enterprises.
“The NSIA NPI Programme is great to identify the best and brightest innovators at an early stage here in Nigeria,” he said.
He added that entrepreneurs needed adequate training and support to become ready for investment and scale their businesses successfully.
Nigeria’s Entrepreneurial Potential
Delucia described Nigeria as a country with enormous entrepreneurial opportunities, driven by unmet needs, business prospects and the resourcefulness of its population.
He maintained that although the country has considerable entrepreneurial talent, many business owners require structured training and guidance to develop commercially viable enterprises capable of attracting investment.
According to him, equipping entrepreneurs with the necessary skills should precede efforts to secure capital, as investment readiness would improve their chances of building successful businesses.
He said Nigeria’s entrepreneurial potential could be better realised through sustained capacity development, access to finance and the right support systems.
Delucia emphasised that strengthening entrepreneurs’ business skills would help them attract the capital required to expand their operations, create jobs and contribute to economic development.
The NSIA Prize for Innovation and CASCADOR initiatives, he said, represent complementary approaches to nurturing businesses at different stages of development, from early-stage innovation to growth and expansion.
The initiatives underscore the importance of combining funding with education, mentorship and strategic partnerships to help Nigerian entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses, generate employment and contribute to national economic growth.
