The North Central Zonal Hackathon, held at Nasarawa State University in Keffi (NSUK), on Monday, August 18, 2025, has successfully mobilized and documented delegates for the upcoming 2025 Youth Entrepreneurship & Innovation Boot Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The event aimed to provide pre-departure orientation, test-run export-ready innovation pitches.
45 Startups Registered in the focal sectors of Agriculture, health, transportation, and ICT as 10 final pitches were made, with 5 pitches from National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), nominees and 5 from NSUK, Enterprise Development Center (EDC).
Delegate participation include representatives from Abuja, Benue, Nasarawa, and FCT, among other online stakeholders.
Institutional participation includes the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Nigeria, Bangladesh Business and Technology Forum, NSUK, NITDA, and NBTI.
Event Outcomes include Innovation pitches with high-quality prototypes that were pitched, with judges and mentors providing feedback on competitiveness and
global readiness.
Health & travel briefing were given by the NBBTF to guide Embassy procedures, vaccinations, insurance, air safety, and travel readiness information.
The President of NBBTF lamented the major challenges of low state representation and suggested that the Federal Ministry of Youth Development should scale up sensitization and engagement with the states through state governors and state ministries directly for stronger representation.
In addition, he called for an urgent Interministerial meeting with the stakeholders to debrief and refine logistics and preparations for the main event in October.
On funding the President called for the Activation of Bank of Industry (BOI), National Board fo Technology Incubation (NBTI), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Raw Materials Research and Development Agency (RMRDC), other Government agencies and private sector for sponsorship support to the finalists.
He disclosed that an advanced Interministerial Delegation will come up in September 2025, to sensitize government and private sector stakeholders in Bangladesh before the arrival of the Minister’s delegation.
The Boot Camp comes up between October 13-18, 2025, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development, NBBTF and other stakeholders will hold a debrief meeting on Tuesday to review the North Central Zonal Hackathon outcomes. The meeting aims to strengthen inter-agency support and state-level mobilization.
