President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday inaugurated a 14-member National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NCDIE) with the mandate to guide the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act (NSA) 2022.
The president performed the ceremony shortly before the start of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which he chaired at the council chambers of the presidential villa in Abuja.
The membership of NCDIE, which is chaired by the president, includes the vice president as vice chairman; and the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy who shall preside over the council in the absence of the chairman and vice chairman.
Other members are ministers of finance; industry and science; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); four representatives of the Startups Consultative Forum and one representative of the Nigerian Computer Society; one representative of the Computer Registration Council of Nigeria and the Director General of the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as secretary of the council.
It will oversee the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act 2022, which aims to stimulate the growth of innovative startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
In his opening remarks, President Buhari stressed the importance of the NCDIE in driving economic growth and job creation, as well as consolidating on the gains recorded in the sector under his administration.
Buhari said the startups ecosystem had been growing at a remarkable space in Africa. He observed that Africa startups grew to $5.4bn in funding, noting that, “Nigeria has been at the forefront of this growth, with Nigeria’s startups rising from over $400bn between 2019 and 2022.”
Pantami, earlier in his opening remarks, said the inauguration of the council would support the administration to consolidate the gains and achievements recorded so far in the digital economy sector.
He said, “This administration has set three unprecedented records when it comes to ICT contributions to GDP. For example in the first quarter of 2020, ICT alone contributed to 14.07 per cent to the country’s GDP.
‘‘In the second quarter of 2021, ICT alone, without digital services, contributed 17.92 per cent to GDP while in the second quarter of 2022, ICT contributed 18.44 per cent.
Pantami said out of seven unicorns in the continent, Nigeria now accounted for four unicorns worth over $1bn each.
‘‘57.14 per cent of the entire African unicorns originated from Nigeria while the market value of seven of them combined as at February 2023 is $11.45billion, with the four from Nigeria contributing $7.5bn,’’ he said.
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