On Tuesday, 4th of April (2023), the Higher Education Institution Practice at Co-creation Hub hosted the second of its Speaker Series event for the year. The Speaker Series has been developed to facilitate the exchange of insights on Driving the Culture of Innovation in Tertiary Institutions across Africa.

The event was convened at the AUSTInspire Incubation Center situated at the Abuja University of Science and Technology.

Panellists at the roundtable were Ebiho Agun (Head of Partnerships and Programs, Ministry of Youth), Dr Aristotle Ado (Director of Planning, NITDA, National Information Technology Development Agency), Jude Adejuwon (HEI Practice Lead, CcHUB, Co-creation Hub), Prof Peter Azikwe (President, AUST, Abuja University of Science and Technology) and Dr Obichi Obiajunwa (Hutzpa Center for Innovation and Development).

The Director of Planning, NITDA welcomed the dialogue and remarked that “the key to pursuing excellence in innovation among higher education institutions is to embrace an organic, long term, non-conformist learning process and not to be satisfied with mediocrity” ‘

“Young Innovators already have the innate ability to create. Entrepreneurship training, especially within universities like this, is about nurturing that innate ability and instilling in young innovators the confidence, as well as the skills, to see their ideas to fruition. “- stated Ebiho Egun, representing the Ministry of Youth.

Over 30 young innovators were in attendance, and the Speaker Series is one of CcHUB’s strategies to connect more young innovators to emerging opportunities and resources in the Innovation Ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

The first of the series was hosted at iHUB (CcHUB’s sister company in Nairobi, Kenya), with the next and third events scheduled to hold later in the year at CcHUB Design Lab (Kigali, Rwanda)