2025 Youth Entrepreneurship & Innovation Boot Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh -North Central Zonal Hackathon Concludes in Keffi
Oru Leonard
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 include the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Nigeria Bangladesh Business and Technology Forum, NSUK, NITDA, 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 like Embassy procedures, vaccinations, insurance, air safety, and travel readiness information were provided.
The President of NBBTF lamented the major challenges of low state representation and suggested that 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 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 advance 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.
