The Director-General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mal. Kashifu Inuwa, has disclosed that Nigeria as a country attracted a venture capital inflow of almost a billion dollars in three years.
Quoting Partech Africa 2020 Annual VC Report, Mal. Inuwa explained that venture capital flows into Nigeria moved from about $100million in 2016 to almost a billion dollars in 2019, assuring that more of these venture capital inflows are expected as the federal government through NITDA continues to create the enabling environment for startups to thrive.
“Nigeria’s burgeoning digital innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem has attracted significant investments over the years. While we have local and foreign investors, the opportunity still exists for more private sector involvement,” he assured while delivering the welcome address at the Anambra Innovation Stakeholders Summit (AISS 2021).
He attributed the interest from Venture capital to some policies of the government, which have created burgeoning Fintech companies such as Flutterwave and Paystack that are making waves in Nigeria and beyond.
He believes all these are pointers to the vast opportunities that can be harnessed by startups to incubate a technological revolution within Nigeria and beyond,” he said.
“Startups play a significant role in economic growth by spurring innovation, injecting competition as well as job creation. Additionally, the size of our population offers innovative startups an opportunity of access to a big market by developing solutions tailored at solving identified challenges/needs,” he said.
According to Inuwa, some of the policies supporting the digital innovation ecosystem in Nigeria, helping startups to thrive is the Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) 2021-2024, which is targeted at driving programs and initiatives to achieve the objectives of the NDEPS.
The NDEPS, Inuwa disclosed is anchored on 7 pillars namely; Developmental Regulation; Digital Literacy and Skills; Digital Transformation; Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Cybersecurity; Emerging Technologies; and Promotion of Indigenous Content.
The 4th pillar on Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship has a particular focus on implementing programs and initiatives that will strengthen the digital innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, as well as enable Innovation-Driven Enterprises (IDEs) and Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) to thrive.