By Progress Godfrey, Abuja

As Nigeria continues to renew efforts to bridge the widening innovation and skills gap, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) on Thursday, launched the Future Makers programme, a bold drive to catch young talent early.

The initiative targets children aged 5 to 16, aiming to build a strong pipeline of young scientists and engineers while shaping mindsets from the earliest stage. NASENI said the goal is to groom future innovators who see science and technology as a passion, not survival.

Addressing a press conference shortly after the unveiling in Abuja, NASENI’s Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)/Chief Executive Officer, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, said: “This is another episode of NASENI’s programme, the Future Makers, which is basically targeting the very, very young youth. So this program is basically encouraging and supporting innovators from the very early stage.

“First of all, we want to have a change of mindset. And we want to have people at a young age getting interested in science, engineering, and technology. The reality is, we have really good engineers, scientists, and people working in tech in Nigeria. But a lot of them are working for survival.

“We’ve seen various programmes happening all over the world. And that is what we are doing with the Future Makers in NASENI, where they begin to play around with technology, science, even with regard to their toys.”

Halilu explained that the agency plans to reach as many young people as possible across the geopolitical zones to ensure wide access, hence its application process and information are online.

The EVC said the success of the initiative will be measured by the number of children who join the programme yearly and how many eventually progress into the agency’s higher innovation schemes. It added that placing government at the centre of talent grooming, formerly dominated by the private sector signals progress.

Speaking on the phases and processes of the initiative, Head of NASENI’s Innovation Hub, Rachael Oluwabusola Perez-Folayan, said the program runs from December 2025 to February 2026, with an application timeline from December 11 to January 11.

According to her, the programme runs in 3 phases: the official launch/pre-hack, the hackathon, and the post-hack phases. She explained that baseline research conducted by the agency as part of the pre-hack phase showed that only 1 per cent of children aged 5-16 in Nigeria had innovation skills, a gap that the agency is committed to closing.

She noted that the second phase which is the hackathon, would happen for one week. “In that one week, we’re going to house these young innovators across the six geopolitical zones.”

“During that phase, we’re going to be training them on leadership, business development, and then have design thinking sessions with them. Beyond the training, they’re actually going to be building out prototypes. They’re going to be forming teams, after which they will pitch in the presence of judges. And judges then pick the top three across the six geopolitical zones,” she said.
She added that the Winners from each of the zones would receive different prizes, including cash rewards and other incentives meant to encourage early innovation.

She further said the top 6 winners, one from each zone, would be invited to Abuja in February for the NASENI Invention Fest, where the finalists will pitch their ideas against one another, and a national winner will be selected, who takes home N5 million, while first, second and third positions also get cash prizes.

Also, she said NASENI has secured university scholarships for the top three winners, to be used whenever they are ready for admission, as well as an international study tour with the Executive Vice Chairman. The tour comes after the Invention Fest, forming the third phase of the programme.

Chairman, Senate Committee on NASENI, Senator Ezenwa Francis Onyewuchi
earlier in his goodwill message, described the initiative as the beginning of a journey that would shape the next generation of thinkers, innovators and problem solvers in the country.

For him, the Future Maker is special because it speaks directly to the heart of what innovation should be: Early discovery, patient nurturing and deliberate empowerment by identifying and mentoring school children and skilled young artisans between the ages of 5 to 16.

“This program offers these bright young minds more than a platform, it gives them a voice. Through design thinking, creative workshops and prototype development, they will learn how to turn ideas into real practical solutions,” Onyewuchi said.

He commended the agency, adding that it is planting seeds that would grow into the engineers, the designers, and the inventors of tomorrow, in a world driven by creativity and technology.