Building What Works in Emerging Innovation Ecosystems

The Northern Nigeria Case – Kano, 3 January 2026.

From early morning on the 3rd of January in Kano, something quietly important began to unfold.

As the day moved from morning into afternoon and then evening, about fifty people – founders, policymakers, investors, hub managers, development partners, and researchers sat in one room not to make speeches, but to listen to one another. They came from different sectors, different states, and different levels of power. What brought them together was a shared concern: there is talent, energy, and imagination in this region, yet too many young people still struggle to turn ideas into real, growing businesses.

Although the conversation took place in Northern Nigeria, the questions on the table were not uniquely Nigerian. They are the same questions being asked in many emerging innovation regions across Africa; places where ability is abundant, infrastructure partially exists, but pathways to markets remain fragile. This gathering became a reference case for those wider puzzles.

That was why the FutureMap Foundation convened the first FutureMap Roundtable.
Not to talk about “potential.”
But to ask, honestly: what is working, what is not, and what do we need to change?

From the start, the rules were simple. Keep it short. Speak from experience. Challenge assumptions kindly. If you speak often, make space. If you are quiet, your voice matters. And when institutions spoke, founders and practitioners were invited to respond, not to argue, but to test whether policies matched reality.

That simple design set the tone for the day.

What People Are Seeing on the Ground

The first thing that became clear was that the problem is not a lack of effort.

Across the region there are innovation hubs, training centres, tech communities, and young people teaching themselves how to code, design, and build products. There are donors funding programmes and agencies launching initiatives.

And yet many startups struggle to find customers. Many talented people still leave.

So the gap is not energy.
The gap is connection and structure.

Founders spoke about how difficult it is to access government systems, data, and procurement processes. Hub managers spoke about training people who later leave because they cannot find real work. Investors spoke about wanting to invest but not seeing enough proof that businesses can grow and survive.

No one blamed anyone. But something important was named:

“We are doing many things, but not always together. What we lack is not activity, but a strong, connected ecosystem.”

That insight became the quiet thread running through the rest of the day.

The Infrastructure Paradox

When people spoke about infrastructure, a more careful picture emerged.

There are buildings. There are hubs. There are programmes.
But what is missing is accessibility rather than availability.

Participants described facilities that exist yet remain locked to innovators; cities with dozens of ICT centres that are severely underused; public assets built with good intentions but constrained by gatekeeping policies.

So the paradox is not that infrastructure is absent.
It is that infrastructure exists but remains out of reach.

Without unlocking these assets, innovation stays slow, expensive, and fragile. Every startup is forced to rebuild what should already be public.

From Clever Invention to Economic Signal

As the conversation turned to products and startups, another pattern appeared.

There is no shortage of creativity or technical skill. But too often solutions are created without a clear path to users, buyers, or revenue.

Founders told stories of impressive platforms that never found a market. Buyers explained how hard it is to work with startups. Policymakers admitted that systems built for a different era struggle to accommodate innovation.

So the problem is not intelligence.
It is alignment.

Great ideas need pathways into real use; into hospitals, schools, markets, and public services. Without that, innovation remains impressive but fragile, described in the room as “beautiful nonsense” without market fit.

The shift the room called for was simple:

From building things to solving problems someone is ready to use and pay for.

When Policy Starts Enabling

By the afternoon, the conversation moved from diagnosis to possibility.

Instead of debating ideals, participants worked on practical steps:

• How can startups sell to the government without drowning in paperwork?
• How can public, donor, and private funding work together?
• How can innovators safely access data to build better solutions?

What emerged was not a call for more rules, but for better systems.
Not policy as control, but policy as support.

The “Triple Helix” idea; government, universities, and industry working together was discussed not as theory, but as a way to remove obstacles and solve shared problems. The sense of government as partner rather than gatekeeper felt like a quiet but powerful shift.

Small Changes, Real Impact

With that new mindset, the room focused on what could realistically be done next:

• Clearer pathways for startups to access procurement
• Shared funding models that reduce risk
• Opening existing facilities and digital public infrastructure
• A technical working group on visibility and narrative

Nothing dramatic.
Nothing flashy.
Just steps that make it easier for good work to survive.

Why This Matters

As evening approached, the conversation became more personal.

This was about graduates who return home with skills but no opportunities.
About founders who burn out trying to survive on grants.
About public systems that want to modernise but do not know how to work with innovators.
About keeping talent by making staying worthwhile.

What unfolded in Kano mirrors debates taking place from Tamale to Mwanza, from Saint-Louis to Bulawayo; different cities, similar puzzles.

People were tired but hopeful.
Not because everything was solved,
but because the right people had been in the same room, asking the right questions.

A Quiet Shift

Emerging innovation regions do not need more slogans.
They do not need more conferences.
They do not need more declarations.

They need shared systems, trusted partnerships, and patient work.

That is what began in Kano on the 3rd of January.
Not a grand moment, but a grounded one.

And that is how real change begins.