Public Knowledge and Leadership
Evidence changes little until people act on it. We create spaces where policymakers, researchers, and citizens test ideas in public, and we invest in the next generation of Nigerian policy leaders.
Evidence changes little until the people who can act on it work together from it. The annual Nextier Development Festival (DevFest) brings government officials, private-sector leaders, development financiers, researchers, and civil society into the same room. The first, in 2025, brought together some 200 leaders to diagnose why poverty persists in Nigeria.
DevFest 2026 – Achieving Inclusive Prosperity in Nigeria, Abuja, 13–14 October – moves from what is wrong to what must be built: how Nigeria’s economy can generate rising incomes, productive jobs, and real mobility. It is designed to produce commitments, not only conversation, with sector constraint diagnoses, a reform sequence, and a transformation action agenda tested at DevFest 2027. Nextier Development Discourse carries the same questions into public conversation throughout the year.
Building the next generation
The people who will live longest with today’s policies should help shape them. The Nextier Development Debates put student teams before Nigeria’s policy community to argue resolutions on Africa’s development challenges; at DevFest 2026, teams from Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Ghana debate on the second day. We cover travel, accommodation, and stipends, so that ability, not connections, decides who takes part.
