The concept of social innovation has slowly crept into Nigeria and taken its place as the ideal model for the development of the nation especially with the use of technology. So far there have been massive attempts to permanently innovate. Some of these took off and some didn't. This article examines the social innovation models of successful social innovators in Nigeria. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Delving into the essence of this article, it is important to explain the term “social innovation” as used throughout the book. According to the Oxford Paper on Social Innovation; What it is, why it matters and how it should be accelerated by Geoff Mulgan, "Social innovation is innovative activities and services motivated by the aim of satisfying a social need and which are predominantly developed and disseminated through organizations whose purpose primary is social”. The applications for social innovations are diverse, from strengthening systems, to mobilizing communities, to refining methods and techniques. Ellis (2010) states that the concept of innovation can be traced back to 3200 BC continues to develop and adapt to the sustainable future. The meaning of social innovation is no different in Nigeria, however, the myriad of social problems, which include poverty, inequality and injustice, with no solutions in sight, can chart a unique trajectory medium constantly improvises in the face of insurmountable social challenges. Not in all cases we realize or recognize how much of these become the building blocks of social innovation in our context. Social innovation and impact landscape in Nigeria. Like most African countries, the ministry that manages all innovations, especially those involving technology, is the Ministry of Science and Technology in Nigeria. They have the direct task of facilitating the development and use of scientific and technological apparatuses to accelerate the pace of socio-economic development of the country. According to the 2012 Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation signed by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the overarching motive is to “build strong scientific, technological and innovation capacity and capacity to evolve a modern economy”. While the policies exist, the ecosystem is not evolving as much as it could. But it's definitely progress. The social innovation market in Nigeria is currently filled with international development agencies, startup founders, software developers and research institutes. The government's presence is a bit obscure. And the most relevant social innovations today are those that address the problem of corruption: accountability in government, waste disposal/recycling, agriculture and education. However, the most trending innovations are those in the agricultural sector. This is due to the latest recession suffered by the country, the government and other stakeholders initiated a major agricultural drive for Nigerian youths. This has led to a massive onslaught of innovative ways people can farm to address the problem of hunger and poverty. To substantiate this claim, a review of the frequency of government funding to encourage agricultural innovations - According to a report by Godwin Emefele – former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, published in the Leadership Paper. He said: “Nigeria’s incentive-based Agricultural Lending Risk Sharing Scheme (NISRAL) was designed to improve lendingto agriculture by reducing sector risk through credit risk guarantee, among other things, to increase production and processing along the value chain. N75 billion was provided by the CBN. Furthermore, the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) Fund administered by the Central Bank of Nigeria provides a guarantee of up to 75% for all loans extended by commercial banks for agricultural production and processing.” So far, the primary motivation for most social innovators in Nigeria is, firstly, the need to solve a social problem, and secondly, the need to make money. Therefore, we have more social entrepreneurs than non-profit innovations. In terms of evaluating the money so far invested in social innovations in Nigeria, no study has carried out a value for money analysis on social innovation, but every year 0.15% of overseas development assistance goes to social innovations in Africa”. innovations can be grouped. They are mostly classified by platform type, civic/government technology, and innovation dimension. The case study was selected based on the focus on government/technology and the scale of impact of their innovation. The issue of social impact assessment is an ever-evolving debate in the social innovation and business sector. Everyone wants to do it, but no one has really figured it out, at least not in a practical, meaningful way that delivers an outcome that simultaneously satisfies organizations, beneficiaries, funders, and other key stakeholders. (Pathak,2013) A closer look at social innovations in Nigeria. In line with the Transformation Agenda and Vision Nigeria 20:2020, it is virtually impossible for Nigeria to become a top 20 economy by 2020 without strengthening science, technology and innovation. (NSI Draft, 2013) To do this, we first look at what is achievable now in terms of social innovations, examining some important innovations using the framework of their size, the scope of impact as specified, their financial growth and the type of financing. Case study 1 – budget. The budgeting process at the highest level of government in Nigeria is riddled with inadequacies and stifled precision. It is often filled with padded figures and deliberate obscurity. This is alleged to spur corruption in several sectors. There was also a case of lack of budget as observed in 2016. This was reported by several newsrooms such as the BBC. With situations like this, it is clear that accountability within the Nigerian parliament was needed and this gave rise to case study number 1 – Budget. Founded in 2011, BudgIT is a civic organization that applies technology to combine citizen engagement with institutional improvement to facilitate social change. A pioneer in the field of social advocacy combined with technology, BudgIT uses a variety of technological tools to simplify budget and public spending issues for citizens, with the primary goal of raising the standard of transparency and accountability in government. They are in constant collaboration with civil society, public institutions and the media, mainly in the areas of fiscal analysis, civic technology and data representation. BudgIT's methodology is implementing refined data mining skills to creatively represent data and enable citizens to use the resulting information to demand better service delivery. BudgiT is a startup incubated by social innovation technology center CChub in Lagos. They were positionedstrategically enough to obtain funding from foreign aid foundations. This helped stimulate their initial process and also strengthen their determination to do a good job. Even though the tally says they have reached over 75,000 Nigerians both offline and online, in a country of over 180 million people, that number is quite negligent in the grand scheme of things. This is mainly because using technology to show the budget is still too far-fetched considering Nigerians are leaving rural areas. Furthermore, there are over 200 languages ​​in this country and although English is the official language spoken in Nigeria, many people are still unable to speak that language. All of these may be restrictions they face, which limit their reach and invariably impact reach. However, we cannot deny that the purpose of BugdIT is to improve accountability at all levels of government is a necessary social innovation in a country like Nigeria. A nation where corruption is deeply rooted in its fabric and where all its social problems originate. Case Study 2- Connected Development (Code) Connected Development is a social innovation that was created to create an accountability movement within the nation. While quite similar to BudgIT, in terms of the main purpose of the setup, their method is quite different. Founded in 2012, Connected Development [CODE] is a non-governmental organization [NGO] whose mission is to empower marginalized communities in Africa. They strengthen local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate, and building citizens' capacities on how to hold their government accountable through a program they created called "Follow the Money." CODE provides marginalized and vulnerable communities with resources to amplify their voices with independence and integrity, while providing communities with information that advances social and economic progress. To improve effective governance and democratic accountability, CODE creates platforms [mobile and web technologies] that close the feedback loop between citizens and government. With global expertise and reach, they focus on community outreach, influencing policies, practices and knowledge mobilization. CODE is committed to participatory capacity and community building, monitoring and evaluation that create effective and sustainable programs in even the most challenging environments. The more hands-on approach CODE has taken to ensure its accountability is truly commendable. This is because they can boast of reaching a wider range of people and the communities they help are more aware of their work and can feel the direct effect. While CODE was not incubated as such, they have learned from the work so far. Through constant participation in work and interfacing with the people, they have mostly been involved in grassroots mobilization to ensure a more transparent government. However, the scale of impact of CODE in 2017 was 523,000 people in 31 rural communities in Plateau, Kebbi, Benue, Kwara, Adamawa, Kaduna, Delta, IMO, Edo, Abia, Akwa, Ibom, Gombe, Sokoto, Yobe, Cross River, Ondo and Kano. While these numbers are good, in some parts of Nigeria they still remain obscure and the value of their work is unknown. Much of their financial support comes from a grant from foreign aid foundations such as the Omydya network and the Ford foundation without which their work will be difficult to execute and implement, Nigerian investors and foundations are still not buying the value of their Work. This in itself is a serious cause for concern. Case study 3 – recyclers A.