Making Innovation And Grassroots Impact: How NASENI Is Turning Skills Into Sustainable Livelihoods

For years, one of Nigeria’s persistent development challenges has been the gap between technological innovation and its practical application in everyday life. Ideas may emerge from laboratories and research institutions, but translating those ideas into productive skills, viable enterprises and solutions that reach communities remains critical to building a self-reliant economy.

Under the leadership of the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, the Agency is increasingly positioning its interventions around closing that gap, connecting technical skills development with access to tools, clean technologies and opportunities for enterprise creation.

Through programmes such as the NASENI Skills Acquisition Programme (NSAP) and the NASENI Sustainable Empowerment Programme (NSEP), its recent interventions across Anambra, Benue, Kano and Oyo States illustrate how this approach is taking technology and practical skills beyond institutional facilities and into communities.

The EVC/CEO of NASENI represented by the Acting Coordinating Director, Engineering Infrastructure, Engr. Dr. Rasheed Abdullahi Agava, speaking in Wannune, Benue State said the objective of the two initiatives was to empower beneficiaries to become employers of labour and achieve economic resilience.

From Learning to Earning

At the heart of NASENI’s skills development interventions is a simple principle: training is more meaningful when beneficiaries have the means to apply what they have learnt. In Onitsha, Anambra State, NASENI concluded a five-day skills acquisition programme for 100 youths in modern electrical installation and maintenance.

The intervention went beyond classroom instruction, with participants receiving practical equipment and safety gear, including electrical toolboxes, multi-meters, screwdrivers, safety boots, helmets and cordless drilling machines.

The intervention was welcomed by the Obi of Onitsha, His Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, who commended the initiative and pledged traditional oversight to encourage effective use of the starter tools for enterprise development.

In Wannune, Benue State, NASENI combined technical training with household-level economic and clean-energy interventions. The programme trained 100 men in solar installation and 120 women in the production of household essentials such as soap and petroleum jelly. A further 250 beneficiaries received clean-energy solutions, broadening the intervention from skills acquisition to practical support for household productivity.

Dr. Agava said the skills acquired by the solar installation trainees placed them in one of the fastest-growing areas of Nigeria’s economy, as households, businesses, farms, schools and public institutions are increasingly adopting renewable energy solutions. “Across the country, households, businesses, farms, schools and public institutions are increasingly adopting renewable-energy solutions.

“NASENI itself is supporting the development of Nigeria’s domestic renewable-energy ecosystem because we believe that Nigeria must progressively build the capacity to produce, deploy and maintain the technologies required for its energy future. “We also need skilled Nigerians who can install these systems safely, maintain them professionally and build sustainable businesses around them.

In Gaya, Kano State, the Agency concluded a six-week hands-on tailoring programme for 100 young men and women. With industrial sewing machines and start-up materials provided alongside the training, beneficiaries were equipped with the basic resources required to begin translating their skills into income-generating activities.

Mr. Halilu represented at the ceremony by the Acting Director of Finance and Accounts, NASENI, Mr. Muhammed Alhassan, said the practical skills acquired by the men and women who participated in the training will change the trajectory of their lives.

He noted that tailoring is not merely a craft; it is an enterprise. “It is a pathway to self-employment, to income generation, and to economic independence, particularly for our youth and women who continue to face significant barriers to formal employment.”

In Oyo State, the EVC/CEO of NASENI, represented by the Director, Information, New Media and Protocol Mr. Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, said noted that the Agency’s “Our mandate goes beyond research, laboratories, and technology development. It includes ensuring these technologies reach households, entrepreneurs, and communities, where they can reduce hardship, improve productivity, and create sustainable economic opportunities.”

Across these interventions, the emphasis is clear: technical knowledge is being paired with practical tools and equipment so that beneficiaries can move from learning to application and, ultimately, enterprise.

Bringing Clean Energy to the Grassroots

While NSAP focuses strongly on building technical capacity, the NASENI Sustainable Empowerment Programme addresses another important part of grassroots productivity: access to appropriate and affordable technology.

In communities across Oyo, Anambra and Benue States, NSEP interventions have included clean Cookstoves, Home Solar Solutions and other support packages designed to improve energy access and productivity.

For households and small-scale businesses, access to reliable energy can influence how long people are able to work, the cost of running an enterprise and the quality of everyday life.

NASENI’s clean cookstoves, for instance, are designed to provide more efficient cooking alternatives while reducing reliance on conventional cooking fuels and exposure to smoke. Home Solar Solutions and related support packages provide basic power solutions such as lighting and fans, helping beneficiaries extend productive hours while reducing dependence on conventional electricity sources.

In Abatete, Idemili LGA, Anambra State, 200 women benefited from an NSEP intervention, while in Oyo State, 300 youths, women and persons with disabilities were empowered through the programme.

These interventions reflect a broader approach to empowerment: rather than treating technology as something distant from everyday economic activity, NASENI is deploying practical technologies where they can support households, artisans, traders and small-scale enterprises.

Putting the 3Cs into Practice

The programmes also reflect NASENI’s broader 3Cs philosophy — Creation, Collaboration and Commercialisation.

Creation speaks to the development of indigenous technologies and solutions. Collaboration brings together government institutions, communities and other stakeholders. Commercialisation focuses on ensuring that promising technologies do not stop at prototypes or demonstrations but can progress towards products, services and enterprises that create economic value.

This approach is particularly important in a country seeking to strengthen local production and reduce dependence on imported technologies and expertise.

When young people are trained to install and maintain solar systems, when artisans receive equipment to put their skills into practice, and when communities gain access to locally relevant energy technologies, the impact extends beyond the immediate beneficiaries. It creates opportunities for enterprise development, technical employment, local service provision and the growth of domestic capacity.

The geographical spread of recent interventions from Kano and Benue to Anambra and Oyo — also demonstrates an effort to take these opportunities beyond major technology centres and into communities where practical skills and appropriate technologies can have immediate relevance.

From Empowerment to Industrialisation

The larger significance of these interventions lies in the connection between grassroots empowerment and national industrial development. Industrialisation is not sustained by factories and infrastructure alone. It also requires people with the technical knowledge to operate, maintain, improve and eventually develop the technologies that power those industries.

That is where skills development becomes part of the industrialisation conversation. By combining training with tools, equipment and access to appropriate technologies, NASENI is creating pathways through which beneficiaries can apply their skills, establish enterprises and participate in local production.

The next step is ensuring that these interventions remain sustainable that beneficiaries continue to use the tools provided, that enterprises are supported to grow, and that promising technologies can access markets and investment.

This is also where NASENI’s wider innovation agenda becomes relevant. The Agency’s efforts to support indigenous technologies, strengthen collaboration and move innovations towards commercialisation provide a bridge between the research environment and the communities that ultimately need practical solutions.

The objective, therefore, is not simply to train more people or distribute more equipment. It is to build a system in which knowledge can become productive capacity, productive capacity can become enterprise, and enterprise can contribute to a stronger domestic industrial base.

From skills acquisition in Kano to electrical training in Anambra, clean-energy interventions in Benue and empowerment initiatives in Oyo, NASENI’s recent programmes demonstrate how science, engineering and technology can be connected to everyday economic realities.

The journey from innovation to industrialisation may begin in a laboratory, a workshop or a training room. But its true impact is measured when those ideas and skills reach people, create opportunities and become part of the productive engine of communities.

That is the bridge NASENI is working to build from innovation to application, from skills to livelihoods, and from grassroots productivity to Nigeria’s broader industrial future.