The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) is turning to grassroot startups to tackle Nigeria’s persistent digital infrastructure gap, offering N10 million in funding and venture incubation support to innovators developing solutions for communities beyond the reach of conventional telecommunications services.
The initiative in partnership with Ubulu Africa, comes as a 2024 USPF study identified 87 clusters across Nigeria with little or no telecommunications access, leaving an estimated 23.37 million people disconnected from essential digital services.
Through the nationwide USPF Changemaker Challenge, the federal agency is seeking early-stage startups and innovation teams capable of developing information and communications technology (ICT) solutions that can function in underserved communities where unreliable electricity, expensive devices, poor network coverage and high data costs limit digital adoption.
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The intervention highlights a growing weakness in Nigeria’s technology ecosystem: while much of the country’s startup activity targets consumers and businesses in established commercial centres, millions of people in rural communities remain unable to benefit from the digital services driving economic activity in urban areas.
The challenge also reflects a shift in how policymakers could approach digital inclusion, moving beyond the expansion of telecommunications infrastructure to supporting locally developed technologies that can operate despite infrastructure limitations.
Although Nigeria’s physical mobile coverage gap is estimated at between seven percent and nine percent of the population, the usage gap in rural corridors exceeds 50 percent, according to GSMA Intelligence data cited in the challenge material. This suggests that network availability alone does not guarantee meaningful connectivity, as affordability, access to electricity and digital devices continue to prevent many Nigerians from using available services.
For rural communities, the consequences extend beyond the inability to browse the internet. Limited connectivity restricts access to digital financial services, agricultural information, healthcare delivery, educational resources and markets, reinforcing the economic disadvantages facing populations outside major commercial centres.
The USPF’s strategy is therefore to encourage innovators to develop technologies around the realities of these communities rather than adapt products originally designed for urban consumers.
Odiong Akpan, chief executive officer of Ubulu Africa, said the initiative was intended to expand opportunities for innovators who understand the challenges facing underserved populations.
“Innovation should not be limited by geography. Through the USPF Changemaker Challenge, we want to reach innovators across Nigeria who understand the challenges facing unserved and underserved communities and have practical solutions to address them,” Akpan said.
The competition will focus on five sectors considered critical to improving livelihoods and economic participation in underserved communities: financial inclusion, agriculture, healthcare, education, and clean and affordable energy.
In financial services, the challenge seeks solutions that can extend reliable access to money and financial products among unbanked rural populations. In agriculture, innovators are expected to develop tools addressing farm productivity, supply chains and market access.
Healthcare and education solutions must respond to communities with limited clinical infrastructure, unreliable internet access and inadequate classroom resources, while the energy category targets technologies that can improve access to affordable power and support rural economic activities.
The emphasis on functionality in low-connectivity environments is particularly important. Solutions that depend on continuous broadband access, reliable electricity or expensive smartphones could struggle to reach the very populations the programme intends to serve.
Consequently, the competition is expected to favour practical innovations capable of delivering services under difficult operating conditions, including environments where connectivity is intermittent or unavailable.
Beyond the funding, the structure of the competition seeks to address another weakness in Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem: the concentration of startup opportunities, investment and institutional support in Lagos and Abuja.
Following an initial screening, 50 teams will advance to regional demonstration events across the country’s six geopolitical zones. The selection structure guarantees representation for one team from each of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, alongside 13 additional teams selected on merit.
Six finalists, representing the six geopolitical zones, will subsequently proceed to a National Demo Day.
All six finalists will participate in a four-week venture incubation programme designed to strengthen their products and improve their readiness for deployment, while the three leading teams will share the N10 million prize pool.
This geographic approach could help identify technology businesses that might otherwise remain outside the traditional startup investment pipeline. It also recognises that innovators operating in rural communities may have a better understanding of local infrastructure constraints, consumer behaviour and service delivery challenges than developers building exclusively for urban markets.
However, the larger test for the programme will be whether promising prototypes can progress into sustainable businesses and reach the millions of people identified in the USPF’s connectivity study.
A N10 million prize pool can provide early-stage capital, but deploying technology across remote communities requires more than product development. Distribution, maintenance, affordable pricing, local partnerships, reliable power and long-term financing will determine whether these solutions can achieve meaningful adoption.
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For the USPF, the opportunity lies in connecting grassroots innovation with the country’s broader universal access objectives. Supporting locally developed solutions could complement conventional telecommunications investments by addressing some of the barriers that prevent underserved populations from benefiting from existing infrastructure.
Applications for the challenge are open until 11:59 pm West Africa Time on November 15, 2026. Eligible applicants must be Nigerian-based innovation teams or early-stage startups comprising between two and five members, with all members aged 18 or older.
Participation is free, with entries assessed on the strength of their ICT component, alignment with the published problem statements and credible evidence that their solutions can work for the intended communities. The application details and eligibility requirements are available on the USPF website.
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Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.
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