Government, Stakeholders Assure Tech Startups Of Technical, Funding Supports

The national authorities and stakeholders successful the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) assemblage person assured section tech startups of method and backing enactment to standard globally.

The experts, who spoke connected the sidelines of the conscionable concluded GITEX Nigeria Tech Expo and Future Economy Conference successful Lagos, said that portion startups successful Nigeria don’t person the indispensable infrastructural and backing enactment similar their counterparts successful developed economies, their resilience has taken Nigeria to the planetary stage, making the state the emerging hub of technology.

For his part, the curate of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, noted that ICT already contributes betwixt 16 and 18 per cent to the gross home merchandise (GDP) and described it arsenic Nigeria’s fastest-growing sector.

“The integer system is not conscionable astir apps. It is astir productivity gains that volition alteration agriculture, education, manufacturing, and governance. Under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda, exertion indispensable turn GDP and grow opportunities, trim inequality, and make shared prosperity for each Nigerians,” Tijani pointed out.

The curate unveiled respective national initiatives to enactment this growth, including Project Bridge, a 90,000km fibre backbone to link each states and section governments; the 3MTT programme, expected to go the world’s largest integer skills initiative; and the forthcoming National Digital Economy and New Governance Bill to fortify trust, security, and accountability successful the integer space.

Moreover, the enforcement vice chairman/CEO of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Khalil Suleiman Halilu, said, innovation has go cardinal “in however we physique our exertion successful Nigeria. Mostly, innovation is astir taking ideas from inception to the end. In Nigeria, we person galore talented friends who person ideas.”

Highlighting the challenges confronting astir startups, helium said, the contented astir of them are facing is wherever to spell and show that the thought tin lick a problem. “So with the Innovate Naija Challenge similar this, we volition person a nationalist programme to situation these young guys with ideas. And also, we person a person radical similar AfriLabs to assistance them incubate and signifier ideas and motorboat their ain ideas,” helium noted.

The Innovate Naija Challenge, helium said, is designed to spark nationwide excitement and online engagement by identifying, empowering, and supporting innovative youths crossed Nigeria, wherever they person a accidental to triumph N100 million.

Through originative video submissions, participants volition showcase their inventions oregon ideas for a accidental to person funding. Thirty-seven winners were selected from crossed the country. The situation aims to ignite creativity and make vibrant vigor wrong Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem, utilizing societal media to make a dynamic, high-energy question that celebrates section endowment and ingenuity.

“So, doing that volition assistance them to instrumentality that thought from conscionable an ideation signifier to a signifier wherever they tin lick a nationalist occupation and marque an impact, portion the program tin assistance them commercialise.

“There is simply a quality betwixt invention and innovation. Invention is astir making money. But innovation volition assistance you commercialise and instrumentality your invention to a signifier wherever different radical volition travel and wage for it. So, I spot this arsenic a determination that tin assistance Nigeria lick our planetary occupation utilizing our section endowment and pb to processing technologies that we tin export to the world,” helium pointed out.

Similarly, the manager wide of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, urged startups to look astatine innovation that solves existent problems, not conscionable fancy things, but things that lick regular problems for the mean Nigerian and tin hence besides standard astatine an African level.

While applauding President Bola Tinubu’s medication for giving youths galore opportunities, helium charged different partners, particularly the governors, to enactment innovations coming from the assorted States of the federation truthful that they tin scale, not conscionable nationally but astatine the African level.

For his part, the curate of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, said his ministry is leveraging partnerships and collaboration from the backstage assemblage and authorities Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to guarantee that it creates opportunities for talented younker to instrumentality vantage of.

“We privation the youths to make jobs for others by bringing their innovative ideas into action. We volition enactment specified ideas and springiness them the indispensable enactment to excel. Nigerian youths person brains. We person energy. We person youths that a larger percent of them are innovators. So our doorway is unfastened to everyone with innovative ideas. We privation to spouse with everybody w...