Nearly 1,000 educators competed for just 120 seats at the inaugural Lagos Summit featuring Google for Education, highlighting the growing demand for digital learning tools and artificial intelligence (AI) training among Nigerian teachers.
The summit, held on June 6, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos, was delivered by Google for Education partner Happy2Host Education in collaboration with Google for Education and supported locally by KEY Academy, a Lagos-based education organisation founded by Damilola Okonkwo.
The event followed an exclusive VIP Discovery Day hosted at Google’s Lagos office, where senior education leaders and influencers explored the future of technology-enabled learning.
Participants included classroom teachers, school administrators, and education leaders from across Nigeria, with some attendees travelling long distances, including a teacher who flew in from Abuja.
Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive. Of the 93 participants who completed evaluation forms, the summit received an overall rating of 4.84 out of 5. Every respondent rated the event either four or five stars, while 84 per cent awarded the highest possible score. All respondents indicated they would attend future Happy2Host events.
A major highlight of the summit was the hands-on training sessions on Google’s AI-powered tools, particularly Gemini and NotebookLM, which emerged as the most valued resources among participants.
Speaking at the event, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Happy2Host Education, Lawrence Tijjani, said the overwhelming response demonstrated the eagerness of Nigerian educators to embrace technology-driven teaching methods.
“A thousand people applied for 120 seats. That tells you everything about the appetite here,” Tijjani said. “Teachers in Nigeria are not waiting to be convinced. They want the training and want to know how to use these tools to make an impact in the classroom, but many have not had access to professional development opportunities like this before.”
Describing the summit as a personal milestone, Tijjani noted that the event represented a homecoming, as his parents were born in Nigeria.
“This was a full-circle moment for me. To come back and build something lasting in the country my family comes from means everything,” he added.
The summit featured practical examples tailored to Nigeria’s educational environment, including presentations from Bloombreed Schools, Nigeria’s first Google Reference School. Sessions covered topics ranging from 21st-century learning in the age of AI to school safety and digital transformation.
Founder of KEY Academy, Damilola Okonkwo, emphasized the enthusiasm and commitment demonstrated by educators throughout the event.
“Nigerian educators are hungry to learn, hungry to collaborate, and hungry to build better schools. When you bring passionate educators together and equip them with the right tools, something powerful happens,” she said.
She added that creating opportunities specifically designed for the realities of Nigerian classrooms remains critical to improving educational outcomes across the country.
The summit also revealed a significant knowledge gap regarding Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, Google’s free education platform. Organisers discovered that many schools continue to rely on personal or commercial Google accounts, unaware of education-specific solutions available to them.
In response, Happy2Host Education announced plans to establish a local trainer programme aimed at increasing the number of Google Certified Educators and Trainers in Nigeria. The organisation also plans to launch online Gemini Academies for K-12 and higher education institutions and host a larger in-person summit in 2027.
Buoyed by the success of the event, Happy2Host Education further announced the launch of Happy2Host Edu Africa, a dedicated division focused on expanding professional development opportunities and building sustainable educational capacity across Nigeria and the wider African continent.
“Our objective extends far beyond a single event,” Tijjani said. “We are committed to long-term partnerships with institutions from K-12 through higher education and to helping schools fully leverage the Google for Education ecosystem.”
One attendee, Michael Sunday of SafeHands Schools in Abuja, described the summit as a worthwhile investment.
“I came all the way from SafeHands Schools in Abuja. My school treated this as a serious investment, and it met and exceeded my expectations,” he said.
Founded by teachers, Happy2Host Education helps schools, colleges and educational trusts maximise the use of Google Workspace, Gemini and AI technologies. The organisation received the Google for Education Trainer Leadership Award in February 2026 and currently works with institutions across the United Kingdom, Bermuda and Nigeria.
The success of the Lagos Summit signals a growing appetite among Nigerian educators to embrace AI-driven teaching and learning solutions as schools prepare for the future of education.
EduTimes Africa, a product of Education Times Africa, is a magazine publication that aims to lend its support to close the yawning gap in Africa's educational development.