The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry will on Monday open an Innovation Hub in the state to incubate technology startups and small and medium-scale enterprises.

The Chairman, Research & Advocacy at LCCI, Ladi Smith, on Friday said the chamber aims to catalyse innovation in Nigeria’s business environment with the hub. According to him, it would “curate and incubate” new ventures and serve as a pipeline for future chamber members.

“The Innovation Hub we are opening on Monday is the best place you can bring any entrepreneur,” Smith said at the chamber’s 2025 Members’ Day in Lagos. “You don’t even need to be a member of the chamber to try your hand at whatever it is.”

In an interview with Sunday PUNCH, Smith disclosed that the chamber’s Innovation Hub will provide co-working spaces, mentorship, and market-access programmes for tech ventures. He added that graduates of the hub would “feed the membership” of the chamber.

Smith added that the annual Members’ Day remained a key networking platform that puts blue-chip companies and startups “in the same room,” encouraging mentorship and deal-making in the fast-growing fintech space.

Lagos State Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake, urged entrepreneurs to leverage the state’s digital infrastructure and cybersecurity programmes.

He said in a fireside chat, “Through the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, we have trained over 35,000 young people in digital skills.

We also expanded metro-fibre into underserved areas to de-risk investment for telecom operators.”

Alake warned SMEs to adopt basic cyber-defence measures, adding, “You must think safety first. Engage white-hat hackers to test your network before criminals do.”

Representing the Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Director, Information and Communication Technology, Ikechukwu Okoro, said the ministry had tied €7.9bn in green-hydrogen investment to its Project Green initiative and planned 30 per cent local value-addition on raw-material exports.

“Innovation and resilience are survival tools,” Okoro told participants. “Government alone cannot execute transformation at scale; we need private-sector collaboration.”

Meanwhile, LCCI President, Gabriel Idahosa, in his opening address, represented by Deputy President Leye Kupoluyi, said the chamber would keep advocating policies that cut energy costs and unlock financing for innovative firms.

“Nigeria’s private sector shows remarkable resilience,” Kupoluyi said. “According to PwC’s 2024 MSME survey, 58 per cent of MSMEs have adopted an innovation, from digitising payments to re-engineering supply chains.”