Collaboration opens new possibilities

Nigeria is the largest market in Africa and one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Nigeria has a massive consumer market of 200 million people and by 2050 there will be more people in Nigeria than in the US. Nigeria's growing middle class accounts for approximately 23% of the population and is estimated to have a combined buying power of US$28 billion.

There are more innovation centres and incubators in Nigeria than anywhere else in Africa, which signals a healthy environment for new business initiatives. The country has undergone political improvements and foreign investments to Nigeria have increased notably. The government has introduced a number of incentives to attract foreign investments.

Nigerian markets functionality and suitability for Finnish products and services make Nigeria one of the most promising markets for Finnish companies in Africa according to EK. Increasing collaboration with Nigeria is also in the focus of Foreign Ministry of Finland, as part of their Africa collaboration and Business Finland also serves you through an office in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria.

The Nigerian public sector is putting emphasis on developing a circular economy. Nigeria was among the first countries to join the African Circular Economy Alliance and an Extended Producer Responsibility Programme has been established. The first implementation has been a $15 million circular electronics initiative launched by the Nigerian Government, the Global Environment Facility and UN Environment to kick-off the circular electronics system in Nigeria.

The next focus is on the Food and Beverage Alliance that has been formed to create an ecosystem that drives sustainable actions towards managing post-consumer plastics. This is visible in concrete targets for corporations like Coca-Cola who is aiming to collect and recycle 100% of their packaging by 2030. Unilever East & West Africa's goal is to halve the environmental footprint of the making and use of their products by 2030.

Finland is a forerunner country in the transition to a circular economy and can play a unique and important role to enable this transition also in Nigeria.

Innovation Challenge

In a digital Innovation Challenge Nigerian companies will present their circular economy challenges, to which they need new solutions. Finnish companies have the opportunity to present their solutions to the challenges, learn from their Nigerian counterparts, work together on the challenges and identify new partnership and business opportunities. The first innovation challenges are opening in the areas of waste reduction and agricultural production.

Benefits for applying for a LOOP Nigeria Innovation Challenge

• Light and effective way to get to know Nigerian companies and gather customer insights and market understanding before further investments in the new market.
• Well-facilitated time with potential customer with the ability to tailor your approach to their needs.
• Participation has very low risk. During the innovation challenge, you get to work with the corporation team and learn from them. This sets a solid base for potential future collaboration.
• The challenge is organized around a real problem identified by Nigerian companies. Creating a relevant solution for the corporation offers real and sizable scaling opportunities that can be piloted after the Innovation Challenge.
• The Innovation Challenge will be organized following a well-tested and proven Avanto Ventures Innovation Challenge model

Funding

LOOP Nigeria facilitates ideation and partnership building between Finnish and Nigerian companies with the aim to support new solutions for circular economy challenges. Business Finland offers a new service for to fund the co-creation of these solutions that also covers the costs of local partners.

This funding model utilizes regular Business Finland funding levels and criteria but adds an additional grant to cover costs of the partners for local co-creation, piloting and development impacts. Partners may be Nigerian SMEs, research organizations, public entities or NGOs.

LOOP Nigeria also benefits from collaboration between Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Sitra together with African Development Bank.

The first innovation challenge will be running in October 2020. The theme of the first challenge will be Circular Solutions to Reduce Plastics (can be modified).

The challenge will be opened in September. If you are interested in joining, please contact Veera Koskinen, veera.koskinen (at) businessfinland.fi.