NITDA: No Single Agency Can Unlock Nigeria’s Startup Act

Victoria Fabunmi
ONDI National Coordinator 

“We want to go to the next level. We want to be able to say that the actors in our ecosystem have been able to benefit significantly from the legislation that has been passed, and it wouldn’t happen without everyone sitting in this room.” Kashifu Inuwa.

..... Says "the implementation of the Act cuts across trade, finance, communications, innovation, digital economy, science and technology, among other sectors, making effective coordination among government institutions imperative."

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called for stronger inter-agency collaboration to fully implement the Nigerian Startup Act (NSA), warning that the landmark legislation will have little impact unless its incentives are translated into tangible benefits for entrepreneurs and investors.

NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, made the call at the NSA Incentives Activation Co-Creation Session in Abuja, organised by the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), a subsidiary of the agency.

Represented by ONDI National Coordinator, Victoria Fabunmi, Inuwa said Nigeria must move beyond policy formulation to the effective delivery of incentives capable of helping startups grow, attract investment and compete globally.

He said the establishment of the Startup Consultative Forum and the launch of the digital startup portal had created important structures for engagement, but stressed that the real test of the Act would be whether businesses could easily access the reliefs and opportunities it provides.

“We want to go to the next level. We want to be able to say that the actors in our ecosystem have been able to benefit significantly from the legislation that has been passed, and it wouldn’t happen without everyone sitting in this room,” he said.

According to him, the implementation of the Act cuts across trade, finance, communications, innovation, digital economy, science and technology, among other sectors, making effective coordination among government institutions imperative.

He urged participating agencies and private-sector stakeholders to identify institutional bottlenecks, clarify responsibilities and develop practical mechanisms for delivering the incentives to their intended beneficiaries.

In a presentation titled “Operationalising the Incentive Provisions of the Nigerian Startup Act,” Acting Lead, Strategy, Research and Analytics at ONDI, Elma Andah, disclosed that the Act provides more than 31 incentives across six broad areas.

These include tax and fiscal incentives, regulatory support, access to funding, exports and trade, ecosystem development, and training and capacity building.

The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, represented by the National Coordinator, Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), Ms Victoria Fabunmi, in a group photograph with participants from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the Nigerian Startup Act (NSA) Incentives Activation Co-Creation Workshop in Abuja.

Andah said implementation of the incentives requires the involvement of more than 15 government institutions, stressing that no single agency could successfully deliver the provisions of the Act in isolation.

“No single institution can deliver all these incentives alone. Implementation requires coordination across more than 15 MDAs,” she said.

She noted that the Nigerian Startup Act, signed into law on October 19, 2022, was designed to promote innovation, improve access to funding, strengthen collaboration and position Nigeria as a leading technology and innovation hub in Africa.

Despite the challenging economic environment, she said Nigerian startups attracted about $410 million in funding in 2024, underscoring the sector’s potential to contribute significantly to economic growth.

Andah identified progress recorded under the Act to include state-level engagements on adoption, the operational startup support portal, improved startup labelling timelines, the Startup Consultative governance framework and the Startup Investment Seed Fund framework.

She, however, said more work was required to operationalise the regulatory sandbox and ensure that the various incentives were easily accessible to beneficiaries.

She challenged implementing institutions to establish clear ownership of assigned incentives, simplify access procedures and strengthen monitoring and accountability.

Stakeholders at the session said effective implementation of the NSA would help remove bottlenecks, improve Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, attract investment and accelerate the contribution of technology-driven businesses to national economic development.