Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has launched a $600 million programme for young Nigerians in the technology and creative sectors with a call on African governments and the private sector to do more to support the growth of innovation in the continent.
The Vice President spoke at the presidential launch of the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) Programme, held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.
President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier signed Nigeria’s Startup Bill into law, making it the Nigeria Startup Act and also highlighted the essence of collaboration between the private sector and government in scaling up such programmes.
He stated that there has been an influx of private capital which has enabled startups “to expand operations and create new jobs while contributing significantly towards overall GDP growth of the country. There are of course thousands of startups that have used private funds or debt that goes unrecorded.”
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The programme will support young Nigerians ranging from ages 15-35 who are entrepreneurs and involved in early stages in creative, innovative and technology-enabled ventures.
“I think it is now imperative to commence a coordinated approach towards innovation on the continent, bringing together all stakeholders to coordinate efforts at scaling up investments and building programmes that provide the right enabling environment and produce talent pipelines that support the growth of innovation on the continent,” Prof. Osinbajo said in his keynote address at the event.
Under i-DICE, constraints such as access to capital, and capacity limitation of Start-ups would be effectively addressed. But according to the VP, more needs to be done to scale up such programmes.
According to him, “ the government must provide more support for startups and small businesses, and investors must provide more funding. This is why the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises Programme is important.”
The “ i-DICE is supported by funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB)-$170m, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB)-N70m and the Agence Française de Développement-$116m. There is also Federal Government of Nigeria counterpart contribution of $45 million through the Bank of Industry loans for qualifying start-ups.
Commending the efforts of the development partners, the Vice President noted that the programme’s design “supports innovation across very critical pillars including policy, infrastructure, access to finance and talent. These pillars have been identified as very critical to the growth and sustenance of innovation on the continent.”
He declared that the total fund is $618 million, out of which the AFDB provides $170million, the Agence Francaise de development $116m and the Islamic Development Bank will provide $70 million in co-financing.” Another $271m is expected from private sector and institutional investors, he noted.
The launch of the (i-DICE) Programme was a significant milestone by the Nigerian government in its continued efforts in harnessing the potential of its youth population and creating more jobs.
Beyond job creation, “the programme is a government initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital tech and creative industries and especially targeted at job creation,” the VP added.
“The Group has influenced various government policies for the growth of the economy. For instance, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, working with NITDA has established a Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, the Ministry has also led the coordination of our partnership with Microsoft to increase Nigeria’s technology talent pipeline by training 5 million Nigerians in various technology skills.”
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