NIMASA Opens Blue Economy Hackathon to All Nigerians, Scraps Age Limit

By Stella Okocha

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has removed the age restriction for its 2026 National Innovation Hackathon, opening the initiative to all Nigerians aged 18 and above.

The decision follows widespread calls from Nigerians seeking to participate in the NIMASA Blue Economy Accelerator Programme (NIMASA-BEAP), which is aimed at promoting home-grown innovations and solutions across the country’s maritime and blue economy sectors.

NIMASA said the NIMASA-BEAP application portal, which opened on Monday, October 5, 2026, is now open to Nigerians regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or educational background.

The agency urged innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, developers, engineers, artisans, graduates and students with solutions capable of addressing maritime and blue economy challenges to take advantage of the opportunity.

Applications are free and must be submitted through the official NIMASA-BEAP portal before the deadline of Friday, November 13, 2026.

The National Innovation Hackathon is scheduled to hold from December 8 to 10, 2026, and will focus on identifying innovative solutions to critical challenges and emerging opportunities within Nigeria’s maritime and blue economy.

The programme features 13 innovation tracks, including maritime technology and logistics; maritime safety, surveillance and security; green shipping and vessel decarbonisation; seafarer welfare; port digitization; marine waste management; aquaculture and sustainable fisheries; coastal and artisanal fishing; ocean data and analytics; nature-based coastal defence; marine tourism; marine biotechnology; and deep seabed mining technologies and research.

Beyond the hackathon, successful innovators will have the opportunity to progress into the 12-week NIMASA-BEAP Accelerator Programme, scheduled to run from January to April 2027.

Participants selected for the accelerator will receive structured mentorship, industry exposure and venture-development support aimed at helping them transform promising ideas into viable businesses.

The programme will culminate in a National Demo Day in April 2027, where participating ventures will have the opportunity to engage with investors, industry partners, potential customers and other key stakeholders.

NIMASA said NIMASA-BEAP is designed to go beyond a conventional innovation competition, describing it as a national innovation-to-market pipeline created to identify promising Nigerian solutions, develop them into viable ventures and connect them with opportunities within the country’s growing marine and blue economy.

The agency therefore encouraged Nigerians with innovative ideas, technologies and solutions capable of addressing challenges in the maritime sector to apply and take advantage of the programme.

Interested applicants can submit their applications through the official NIMASA-BEAP portal: “nbeap.nimasa.gov.ng” (https://reference-url-citation.invalid/0)

Application deadline: Friday, November 13, 2026.