Advising Nigeria's Highest Think Tank

In 2024, Hrishub provided advanced technology and science research support to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) — Nigeria's foremost think tank and the institution responsible for training the country's top policy and strategic leadership. This engagement combined our strengths in socio-technical analysis and feasibility assessment with hands-on robotics engineering, resulting in two indigenous robotics solutions delivered to support national capacity: Hope, an AI-assisted robotic hand, and ROBOTISHA, Nigeria's first indigenous AI-powered robot teacher.

Built to Answer a National Crisis

ROBOTISHA was not built as a showcase piece — it was engineered in direct response to one of Nigeria's most pressing development challenges. In 2026, UNICEF disclosed that only one in every four Nigerian schoolchildren can read properly and solve basic mathematics by the age of 14, a learning crisis affecting millions of children who are in school but not acquiring the skills they need.

By embedding multilingual instruction, real-time question-and-answer capability, and personalised progress tracking into a single classroom-ready robot, ROBOTISHA gives schools — especially under-resourced ones — a practical, scalable way to close that learning gap rather than just talk about it.

Research That Lowers Costs at Home

Our research team also conducted original biotechnology investigation into lipase-producing microbes found in local soil cultures — identifying an indigenous, low-cost pathway to the enzymes used in detergent manufacturing, which Nigerian producers currently source through expensive imports.

ROBOTISHA — Nigeria's First Robot Teacher

Developed in 2024 through our collaboration with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), ROBOTISHA was built to prove a point: that Nigerian engineers and researchers can design and deploy world-class AI and robotics from right here at home — and to position Nigeria to lead AI and robotics innovation across Africa.

ROBOTISHA is built around the real needs of a Nigerian classroom:

• Multilingual instruction — teaches in local Nigerian languages alongside English
• Real-time Q&A — responds to student questions on the spot, instead of waiting for the next lesson
• Student recognition — identifies individual students to personalise interaction
• Attendance tracking — automatically logs who is present, reducing administrative load on teachers
• Progress rating — tracks each student's learning progress over time

Help Buddy

Help Buddy is our AI-assisted robotic arm built for everyday support in offices and homes — picking up and moving items from one place to another, and handling small physical tasks so people can focus on higher-value work.

AI Speech in Local Nigerian Languages

Most commercial AI voice systems are built for English first and everything else second. We've gone the other direction — developing natural language processing tuned specifically for local Nigerian languages, so AI assistants and robotics are genuinely usable by everyday Nigerians, not just English-speaking, urban users.

Backed by Microsoft & NITDA

In partnership with Microsoft and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Hrishub encourages startups to build real, working solutions rather than just pitch decks — then helps them scale by connecting them directly with investors.

This pipeline, from idea to investment, has helped founders move through our incubation journey — Idea → Validation → Prototype → Launch → Expansion → Scale → Sustainability — while creating local employment and building products that meet world-class standards.

TechUp Cohorts — Currently Running

TechUp Cohort 1.0 (Foundational) and TechUp Cohort 2.0 (Advanced) are both actively running, taking learners from essential digital literacy through to professional productivity and workplace-ready tech skills. TechUp Cohort 3.0 (Expert) builds on that foundation with specialised, high-level technical tracks designed to produce globally competitive tech talent.

DigitHER — Empowerment With Protection Built In

DigitHER goes beyond helping women entrepreneurs bring their businesses online. Every participant also receives digital safety training and direct access to support against online harassment and abuse — because we believe true empowerment cannot happen without security. DigitHER pairs business visibility with capacity training, asset and project funding, and access to grants and mentorship to help members scale sustainably.

Northern Nigeria Microsoft Community

Through our work building and supporting the Microsoft Community in Northern Nigeria, Hrishub Academy has helped produce:

• 3+ Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)
• Multiple Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors
• Accessibility-first solutions built by and for visually impaired developers

Active user groups now meet regularly in Plateau State, Abuja, and Kaduna, with a Kano chapter currently being set up.

From Soil to Industry: Producing Lipase Locally

Nigeria's detergent manufacturing industry relies heavily on imported enzymes — a cost that gets passed straight on to consumers. Our research team set out to find a cheaper, indigenous alternative.

Working with microbial cultures isolated directly from local soil samples, we identified strains capable of producing lipase, an enzyme widely used to improve the cleaning power of detergents. This research demonstrates a viable, low-cost, locally-sourced pathway to a product Nigeria currently imports — with the potential to reduce manufacturing costs and contribute meaningfully to national GDP.

This is one example of our broader approach at Hrishub: bridging traditional laboratory biochemistry with modern digital and computational tools to make scientific research directly useful to industry.

AI-Powered Microorganism Identification

Building on our biotech research into soil microbes and lipase production, our software team developed AI-driven tools that help hospitals and industrial labs identify microorganisms quickly and accurately after laboratory culture — bridging traditional biochemistry with modern computing to speed up diagnostics and research.

This reflects our broader approach to software development at Hrishub: every system we build is designed to plug directly into a real research or operational problem — not built in isolation from the science it's meant to serve.