Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
The presidency has revealed that Nigeria will get its own Nigerian Startup Bill (NSB) before the end of the year.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital Transformation, Osarentin Guobadia revealed this at the weekend at the TechonDemand Hackathon challenge.
The programme was organised by the Financial Services Innovation (FSI) in collaboration with National Association of Computing Students (NACOS), the At the programme, Guobadia explained that the partners had worked on the bill all through the year, hoping it would be passed before the end of the year.
Guobadia said they had worked on the bill, which would aid the government’s digital economy policy and create a stop shop for start-ups.
“We have worked on this bill for most part of the year now and we’re hoping to be able to pass it this year God willing. The bill is particularly to aid the digital economy and drive technology and ideas that are tech-enabled.
“The bill is a set of rules and incentives to help create an enabling environment for tech enabled businesses.
“The bill have the idea of a one stop shop that is basically a startup management system where all startups will be registered and from that platform you will be able to access all the information as relates to the startup as long as you qualify for it.”
Executive Director, Financial Services Innovation, (FSI), Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, said they were there to identify solutions to problems in various sectors of the economy and help reduce unemployment rate in the country.
“That the FSI will give out the sum of two million, five hundred thousand to the ten finalist (N2, 500,000).
‘They are here to build solutions, speak to problems in the health sector, education sector, and the financial services sector, transportation sector and we have seen people come up with solutions.
“They are going to be building minimum viable product (MVP) of the version of what the product will look like and speak to their judges.
“The winner will be rewashed with One million Naira N1, 000,000, the first runner up N500, 000 and the second runner up three hundred thousand Naira N300,000 while the fourth to the tenth person will get One hundred thousand Naira (N100’000) each.
“The event is to raise leaders and create a culture of innovation amongst us, which we believe would reduce the level of employment in Nigeria.
“FSI is a platform for those who don’t have a voice when they have ideas. We are on a mission to identify talents in the Nigerian tech ecosystem.”
Executive Director, Technology and Operations, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), Aminu Maida urged young startups to start with what they have, what they know and who they know.
According to him, do not risk what you cannot afford to lose and that they should build the future with partners, be open to surprise, find it and leverage it.
The Co-founder of Max Africa, Tayo Bamiduro said young people dominated Africa, saying Africa “must leverage on its young population for innovative technology. Digital Mobility provides a platform for impact at scale.”
