Horizon 2020 seminar and EU-Nigeria Business Forum in Lagos

9 November 2016. Lagos Around 50, mostly Directors for Research and Deans of the major Universities and Directors of the major Research Institutions of Nigeria attended the information session on Horizon 2020 in Lagos followed by a second day of hands-on training about proposal writing, financial management and reporting in Horizon 2020.

The seminar was organised with the support of the FP7 funded policy-support project CAAST-NET Plus.

11 November 2016. At the EU-Nigeria Business Forum Cristina Russo gave a keynote speech on Horizon 2020 in the session on ‘integrating Nigerian SMEs in the global market’. The other keynote speech was given by the Nigerian Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment. The panel was composed of the Nigerian Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Enterprise Europe Network, the European Investment Bank and Syntesa who referred in the presentation to their involvement in FP7 funded projects on mycotoxin reduction in the food and feed chain as an important contribution to trade enhancement of Nigerian agriculture products to the European market. Director Sandra Gallina from DG Trade also participated in the Forum.

Side-visits took place to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan involved in several FP7 and Horizon 2020 funded projects mostly in the area of mycotoxin management and bio fortification and a discussion took place about their involvement in the EU-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture.

On the last day, a visit was paid to Nobex company involved in the FP7 funded project Gratitude, that aimed at reducing the post-harvest losses of crops such as cassava and yam that are extremely high. 

• Waste, such as cassava peal or cashew shell and palm kernel is dried through a drying technology (flash dryer) of which the prototype was developed in the Gratitude project. 
• The waste is turned into flower (cassava, yam), mushroom and animal feed. 
• The company now commercialises the technology on the Nigerian market and started exporting it to other countries in Africa (eg. Ghana, Uganda, Benin, Malawi). 
• The company created 20 additional jobs and underlined the important contribution of FP7 funding to its success and the opportunities offered for knowledge exchange in this case with organisations in Vietnam and Portugal.