Accelerator
Open
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National AI Innovation Challenge (NAIC) 2026
Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy / NCAIR / Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI)
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Funding amount
Accelerator
Deadline
October 12, 2026
Level
Other
What's covered
Technical Support
Accelerator
Investor access
About this opportunity
The National AI Innovation Challenge (NAIC) 2026 is a national build-only challenge for Nigerians to develop working AI tools, applications, datasets or fine-tuned models using N-ATLAS, Nigeria's open-source multilingual AI model. Participants can build under three problem areas: Developer Infrastructure, Voice-First Access, or Sectoral Fine-Tuning.
Requirements
- All team members must be Nigerian citizens or registered Nigerian entities.
- Submission must be original work and must not have previously won another competition.
- Teams can submit to only one problem statement.
- A functioning technical artefact is mandatory.
- The solution must genuinely integrate with N-ATLAS.
- Applications and supporting materials must be in English.
- Academia & Research: teams of 2–5, including at least one enrolled student/researcher and a faculty supervisor, plus institutional endorsement.
- Innovation & Enterprise: available to registered startups, technology companies, social enterprises, independent developers and innovation hubs; individual applicants must be Nigerian citizens aged 18+