The Federal Government has moved to establish common standards for innovation hubs across the country, seeking to improve their capacity to nurture startups, develop talent and spread digital innovation beyond Lagos and Abuja.

Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at the National Innovation Hub Standards Framework Workshop organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

The workshop is aimed at validating the proposed standards, assessment criteria and implementation approach for innovation hubs, while assessing their practicality and inclusiveness across different hub types and operating environments.

Tijani said the framework was necessary because innovation hubs, co-working spaces and similar community platforms provide the environment where ideas are developed into businesses and solutions to societal problems.

He described such spaces as critical but often overlooked components of the technology ecosystem, arguing that government and investors should pay greater attention to the support systems that enable startups to succeed.

“Most of the time, when people talk about innovation, we focus only on the innovation, but not on the support system that gets the innovation there,” the minister said.

According to him, the government’s investment in digital infrastructure and technology platforms would have limited impact if the ecosystem supporting innovators was not equally strengthened.

Tijani explained that Nigeria’s digital transformation strategy rests on three layers: foundational infrastructure, technology platforms and applications developed by innovators.

He listed broadband infrastructure, fibre-optic networks, data centres, satellites and digital talent as part of the foundational layer, while digital identity, data exchange and payment systems constitute the technology layer that enables innovators to build applications and services.

The minister noted that Nigeria’s development of digital payment and identity systems had helped create an environment in which fintech companies could thrive, with some growing into billion-dollar businesses.

He argued that similar attention should now be given to the innovation hubs supporting entrepreneurs across the country.

Tijani said the Federal Government was investing heavily in the foundational and technology layers through projects including the planned 90,000-kilometre fibre-optic network, expansion of telecommunications access and efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s digital identity and cloud infrastructure.

He disclosed that government also planned to deploy about 3,700 telecommunications towers in underserved communities, noting that more than 20 million Nigerians still live in communities without adequate access to telecommunications services.

The minister said the investments must be matched with deliberate efforts to improve the quality of innovation hubs, which provide the environment for entrepreneurs to convert infrastructure and digital platforms into economic opportunities.

“If we have all the hubs in Nigeria at the same level of quality as Co-Creation Hub, or let’s say 50 per cent, there’ll be more tech companies not just from Lagos, but from across the country,” he said.

Tijani said every successful entrepreneur supported by a hub had the potential to create jobs, build businesses and generate tax revenue, thereby contributing to the government’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

The minister also stressed the need to protect the country’s growing digital infrastructure, particularly fibre-optic cables that are frequently damaged by construction activities.

He disclosed that a standing committee involving the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, the Ministry of Works and the Nigerian Communications Commission had been established to address the problem.

According to him, digital infrastructure was designated as critical national infrastructure in 2024, providing a stronger basis for protecting telecommunications infrastructure and prosecuting those responsible for damaging it.

Speaking earlier, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said the proposed framework was intended to ensure that innovation was not concentrated in a few urban centres.

He said Nigeria had more than 339 innovation hubs, although many were concentrated in Lagos, Abuja and about 10 other states.

Abdullahi said the framework would provide a pathway for hubs to assess their capabilities, identify weaknesses and progressively improve their operations.

The proposed framework, he explained, contains seven dimensions and about 35 assessment categories through which hubs can evaluate their strengths and determine their stage of development.

“It is not prescriptive. It is something that guides people on how to do it,” he said.

Abdullahi said the objective was not to replicate the Yaba technology ecosystem in every state but to develop hubs around the unique talents, economic opportunities and challenges of each location.

He noted that an entrepreneur in Yola should not have to relocate to Yaba to access the ecosystem required to develop a business.

The NITDA boss also called for stronger collaboration between academia and industry, saying universities must produce graduates with the skills required by the emerging digital economy.

He disclosed that NITDA was working with the Federal Ministry of Education to integrate digital skills into formal education.

National Coordinator, Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation, Victoria Fabunmi, described the framework as an effort to strengthen the support system around startups.

Using the minister’s analogy, she said startups were like babies while innovation hubs were the mothers responsible for nurturing them.

“The idea of the framework is to strengthen the people that support,” Fabunmi said, adding that stronger hubs would help ensure that innovation was spread across the country.

She said the government wanted to see more successful innovations emerging from states such as Zamfara, Yobe, Osun and Jigawa rather than having the ecosystem concentrated in major cities.

The European Union also backed the initiative, with its delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS describing innovation hubs as the “connective tissue” of the digital economy.

Representing the delegation, Tolba Ikram said Nigeria had built one of Africa’s largest innovation ecosystems, citing the 339 hubs across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

He, however, stressed that scale needed to be matched with common standards to ensure quality and sustainability.

Ikram said the EU and its Team Europe partners were supporting Nigeria’s digital ecosystem with more than €820 million between 2021 and 2027, including programmes focused on technical talent and digital transformation.

The EU delegation expressed readiness to connect the Nigerian framework with European certification providers, research institutions and technology companies.

The need for stronger innovation hubs comes as Nigeria’s digital economy continues to expand. National Bureau of Statistics data showed that the information and communications sector contributed 10.07 per cent to real GDP in 2025, while the sector grew by 6.85 per cent during the year.

The framework presented at the workshop remains a draft, with stakeholders expected to contribute recommendations before its finalisation and implementation.