Cognito Studios & Imagery was established and registered in 2012, originally as a photography and art company, but has since evolved into a social enterprise that uses creative communication approaches to document and tell development stories, amplify the voices of the underserved population and highlighting development issues.

Cognito leverages on the power of storytelling to amplify programmes’ impact and highlight innovative learnings thereby building and strengthening capacity to use learnings for re-programming.  The Cognito personifies design thinking for social innovation by using Human Centred Design (HCD) to support organisations in their quest to solve the problems they face by interrogating people and the environment to discover what we can do differently.

Cognito’s expertise spans social marketing and social change. Their approach hinges on research and social and behaviour change communication, trying to understand people’s behaviour and striving to create behavioural change, addressing social norms for an unrestricted acceptance of programmes and creating advocates for amplification of programmes.

They are driven, innovative and experienced working with a variety of stakeholders within and outside Nigeria. They create the most compelling communication materials through their visual communication expertise and have an embedded knowledge management system that integrates high-quality documentation into their work, capturing learnings and linking them back for better implementation.

Cognito and Network of Incubators and Innovators in Nigeria (NINE) have been partners for years. They were attracted to Voice because of their focus on promoting innovation and creativity, amplifying the voices of rightsholders groups, and co-creating solutions.

Cognito Studios and Network of Incubators and Innovators in Nigeria (NINE) are a consortium to support Linking and Learning of Voice in Nigeria. They will create a platform to connect all Voice grantees in Nigeria, support their learning journey and provide a safe space for networking, sharing and documenting their learning journey.

To achieve this, the consortium will co-create innovative approaches with grantees to develop customised tools and coaching plans that meet their respective needs. Creating digital Linking and Learning platforms to promote knowledge management, promote innovative ideas of grantees and promote their publications, as well as amplify their impact and coordinate the Voice community of practice.