🚀 Major Project Launch - OxFounders in Nigeria (#2!) 🇳🇬

We have some major news to announce: the launch of a major advisory project in collaboration with Triple Helix Nigeria and the Nigerian government's Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), focusing on building a stronger university entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country and supercharging the journeys of student founders and researchers.

This week, we were in Abuja to sign a landmark MoU with our two partners, laying out the timeline and structure of our important project, which will be undertaken in 3 phases:

1) Data Mission - gathering data from visits, interviews, and surveys to build Nigeria's first ever university entrepreneurship dataset

2) Ecosystem Design - formulating policy proposals based on the data to tackle existing obstacles and build stronger university ecosystems

3) Implementation - rolling out pilot schems in 13 participating national universities

The partipating pilot institutions are: University of Port Harcourt, ⁠Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun (FUPRE), ⁠Federal University of Technology Owerri, ⁠University of Nigeria, Nsukka, ⁠University of Lagos, Federal University of Technology Akure, ⁠Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, ⁠Bayero University, Kano, ⁠Joseph Sawuan Tarka University of Agriculture, Makurdi,⁠ ⁠Federal University of Technology, Minna, ⁠University of Maiduguri, ⁠Modibbo Adama University, Yola, ⁠University of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory).

MoU Signing

During our visit, we were also delighted to visit the University of Abuja and Federal University of Technology Minna. We kicked off engagement with the first members of our pilot university cohort, laying the groundwork for long-term founder pipeline development.

We also held strategic meetings with startup and innovation teams at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), opening up exciting avenues for collaboration around innovation, talent pipelines, and national development goals.

🚀 Aaaand... our personal highlight was our meeting with Dr. Maurice Nnamdi Mbaeri, Permanent Secretary at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation — the administrative nerve centre of Nigeria’s federal executive. It was a pleasure to present our project and to speak to someone who clearly has such a bold vision for making a positive impact in the country. A heartfelt thank you to Professor Bolaji Babatunde for making this meeting possible. 🚀

Thank you again to Triple Helix Nigeria for organising this visit and for the wonderful gift of our traditional clothes - we were very proud to wear them and are so excited to be working with the team to improve Nigeria's university entrepreneurship ecosystem.