By Obiabin Onukwugha
GeoPredict AI has emerged winner of the maiden Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Technology Innovation Challenge (TIC) 2026, taking home a ₦25 million cash prize for its artificial intelligence-driven solution for reservoir characterisation and drilling decisions.
A statement by NCDMB on Tuesday indicated that the startup was announced winner at the final competition and award ceremony which was recently held at the Nigerian Content Towers (NCT), Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
GeoPredict AI’s solution was adjudged the most outstanding among the finalists for its potential to address critical challenges in the oil and gas industry while advancing indigenous technology development and increasing Nigerian Content.
FrassPlus emerged second and received ₦15 million for its hydrocarbon bioremediation solution, while MAR Thermal SIM placed third with ₦10 million for its offshore corrosion assessment technology.
Other finalists included BMV-6 Medical Ventilator, MaxFox AeroShield and Metallocene Organic Rechargeable Battery
The Technology Innovation Challenge, promoted by Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre (EIC) Limited, according to the statement, was designed by NCDMB to bridge the gap between research and commercialisation by helping Nigerian innovators develop technology-driven solutions for challenges across the oil and gas value chain.
It said the programme focused on areas including drilling, pipeline maintenance, produced water management and subsea operations. Participants also received mentorship, coaching and participated in a physical bootcamp aimed at strengthening their technical solutions, pitching skills and readiness for industry deployment.
Speaking at the event, NCDMB Executive Secretary, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, represented by the Director, Corporate Services, Dr. Abdulmalik Halilu, described the initiative as more than a competition.
He said the TIC was the Board’s “strategic platform to move innovation from the confines of the laboratory directly to industrial application in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and also linkage sectors.”
Ogbe said the initiative was aimed at moving Nigerian Content beyond service delivery to high-end technological ownership, where technologies needed to drive the oil and gas industry would increasingly be designed, developed and deployed by Nigerians.
He urged oil and gas operators and industry associations, including the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), to create opportunities for field trials, technology validation and early adoption of the innovations.
“We need research that is born from the specific, tangible problems in drilling, pipeline maintenance, produced water management, subsea operations, and other critical areas of the industry,” he said.
Ogbe added: “It is time to shift our collective focus from academic application to practical application, solving the genuine problems that the industry is currently facing.”
“Let your laboratories become the testing grounds for the next great Nigerian solution,” he charged.
The NCDMB boss also reaffirmed the Board’s commitment to supporting the innovators beyond the competition, noting that access to capital remained critical to moving technologies from the pilot stage to the market.
He highlighted NCDMB’s funding models, human capacity development programmes and business incubation initiatives as mechanisms for supporting technology commercialisation.
Earlier, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at NCDMB, Mr. Silas Omamehin Ajimijaye, said deliberate efforts were required to convert research into industry-ready products and services if Nigeria was to achieve its Nigerian Content targets.
“This initiative will introduce new levels of indigenous technological solutions for the Nigerian oil and gas sector,” Ajimijaye said.
He added that “for Nigerian Content to grow to 70 per cent by 2027, we must deliberately convert our research output into commercial products and services for the industry.”
According to him, the challenge represented a structured intervention by NCDMB to move research “from concept on paper to technology on the field.”
Ajimijaye urged operators, service companies, academic institutions and other stakeholders to support the adoption and scaling of the innovations, stressing that the real impact of the programme would be measured by the extent to which the technologies were deployed in the industry.
The Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Warri, also pledged its support to the innovators.
The institute’s Director of Innovation, Research and Development, Dr. Tina Olubokola Isichei, said Nigeria needed more deliberate efforts to transform research and innovation into practical solutions.
She noted that Nigeria’s 105th position out of 139 economies in the 2025 Global Innovation Index underscored the need to strengthen the country’s innovation ecosystem.
“Through platforms like this, NCDMB is providing a critical pathway for developing, validating and commercialising indigenous technologies,” Isichei said.
She assured the innovators that PTI was ready to provide access to its facilities and technical support for testing, refining and validating their technologies for real-world application.
Representing the leadership of OPTS, Engr. Oluyoye Adebowale described the challenge as evidence of Nigeria’s capacity to develop local solutions to industry problems.
He said innovation, creative problem-solving and technological advancement were essential to improving the competitiveness of the oil and gas sector.
Adebowale called for stronger collaboration between established industry players and emerging innovators to develop technologies that could improve operational efficiency, strengthen energy security, reduce environmental impact and create sustainable economic value.
Similarly, the Chairman of PETAN, Engr. Wole Ogunsanya, represented by Dr. John Faluyi, commended NCDMB for the initiative, saying Nigeria had significant research capacity, engineering talent and innovative ideas but needed stronger structures to turn them into safe, reliable, certified and commercially viable technologies.
He called for sustained collaboration among innovators, operators, regulators, research institutions and investors to support testing, certification, pilot deployment, local manufacturing, job creation and eventual export of Nigerian technologies.
The chairperson of the judging panel, Dr. Ibilola Amao, Principal Consultant at Lonadek Global Services, said the winners were selected based on criteria including alignment with Nigerian Content objectives, commercialisation readiness, industry impact, scalability and the ability of the solutions to demonstrate Nigeria’s technological capabilities.
Stakeholders at the ceremony described the TIC as a timely intervention capable of reducing dependence on imported technologies and strengthening the link between government, industry, academia and innovators.
The participants also said the mentorship, bootcamp and industry engagement helped them better understand industry needs, sharpen their business skills and prepare their technologies for commercialisation.
The initiative aligns with NCDMB’s broader ambition to move the industry from a compliance-driven “Nigeria First” approach to a performance-driven “Nigeria Preferred” mindset, where indigenous technologies are selected on the basis of quality, efficiency, reliability and value.
Representatives of NBTI, PTI, NNPC Research, Technology and Innovation Centre, NUPRC, NOTAP, OPTS, PETAN, NCDMB Centres of Excellence, academia, research institutions, industry operators, judges, mentors and innovators attended the ceremony.
With the conclusion of TIC 2026, NCDMB said the award ceremony should be seen as the beginning rather than the end of the innovators’ journey, as attention would now shift to technology validation, industry linkages, commercialisation and deployment of promising Nigerian solutions across the oil and gas value chain.
