Global Alliance Africa partners with Innovation Support Network to host the inaugural Innovation Canvas training in Nigeria

Entrepreneurs and innovation play a critical role in a country’s economic development, acting as wheels of industrial development and social growth. Their impact is amplified, especially in developing economies such as Nigeria, where innovative business owners find new and locally-relevant solutions to age-old problems, contributing tremendously to job creation, the eradication of poverty, and improving the quality of life for many. Yet, in Africa, about 90% of entrepreneurs are destined to fail.

The high failure rate for African entrepreneurs can be largely attributed to the lack of research, knowledge and access to ecosystem funding and support opportunities. Therefore, to help entrepreneurs identify the most critical challenges in developing an innovative product, service or process, Innovate UK has developed the Innovation Canvas – a tool that innovators can use to  assess the strengths and weaknesses of a specific project, and prioritise what actions to take towards achieving growth, scale and most importantly, sustainability.

Earlier this month, Global Alliance Africa – a six-year project delivered by Innovate UK KTN partnered with the Innovation Support Network (ISN) to host the first-ever Innovation Canvas training event in Nigeria, which took place on 7 December at the Coworkstyle in Lagos. ISN is a not-for-profit membership organisation, which brings together more than 120 impact-entrepreneurship, innovation and technology hubs across Nigeria.

Under the stewardship of Global Alliance Africa’s Knowledge Transfer Manager for Nigeria, Joshua Adedeji, the training was attended by 15 members of the ISN hub network and included the likes of Witty Hub, Startup Innovation Hub, Enovate Hub, Roar Nigeria Hub, the Clean Technology Hub, and many more. The session focused on the practical application of the Innovation Canvas, where participants unpacked several case studies, to apply what they had learnt. Additionally, the training delved into the common innovation journey, which often sees innovators explore solutions before fully understanding the challenges they seek to address. Describing the training, one of the members, Itoro Emembolu said:

The Innovation Canvas is amazing in that it is thought-provoking, helping to focus on answering critical questions. We will definitely deploy this in our hub.

Africa Regional Lead for Innovate UK KTN, Sophie West, noted:

Given the alignment of the two organisations, Global Alliance Africa has been hoping to find an opportunity to partner with ISN since we first launched our initial programmes in Nigeria. We were delighted to have found such an opportunity with the Innovation Canvas training and it has been a wonderful experience working with the energy and enthusiasm of the ISN team. We hope this is the start of a successful and longer-term partnership between our two organisations.

Commenting on the partnership, ISN spokesperson, Moyinoluwa Joseph, added that:

We are constantly seeking opportunities to strengthen our member base and grow our impact across the country. Therefore, the partnership with KTN to host an Innovation Canvas training session was a perfect fit, as the training provides strategic guidance for the formation of innovative ideas and the development of products and services.

Joseph added that, by training ISN member hubs, these organisations will be better equipped to support startups in their community, which will subsequently drive business growth, job creation and contribute to a more mature innovation ecosystem in Nigeria.

Concluding the session, West says that:

From here, we aim to support those trained in the first workshop with resources they need to host Innovation Canvas training events of their own, so that they can train further cohorts within the ISN network. We look forward to working closely with ISN in early 2023 and beyond.

To learn more about the Innovation Canvas, go to: www.innovationcanvas.ktn-uk.org

About Global Alliance Africa

The Global Alliance Africa project is a six-year project funded by UK Aid through Innovate UK (GCRF) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

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Webpage: ktn-uk.org/programme/africa