Buhari Approves Nigerian Start-Up Bill

25 Feb Buhari Approves Nigerian Start-Up Bill

President Mohammadu Buhari has approved the Nigerian Start-Up bill for onward transmission to the National Assembly for passage into law.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, who confirmed this on Thursday, said the bill will soon be transmitted to the National Assembly by the Federal Executive Council for debate and passage into law.

Pantami, who disclosed this during a Breakfast Interactive session with Nigeria’s innovative Ecosystem, said that it is heartwarming to hear that the President has assented to the Bill for onward transmission to the National Assembly for further legislative work.

The session was themed “Fostering an Enabling Environment for Start-up growth.”

The event was put together on the advice of the Minister, by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), to socialise with the Digital innovation Ecosystem to form a synergy between the government and the ecosystem.

He said, “ the bill when passed into law would solve a barrage of problems confronting the Digital Economy Start-up ecosystem.

He stated that the Bill makes provision for the constitution of the Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship that would serve as an advisory body for the sector.

According to him, the membership of the Council would comprise of the President as the chairman and be supported by the Vice President while the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy deputises for him.

Other members of the council are, the Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs Commission, Federal Inland Revenue Service, and other institutions of government.

Pantami listed other provisions in the Bill to include; tax and fiscal incentives, start-up labelling and profiling, provision for grants and loans by the government, tax holidays, national investment start-up seed funds among others.

While commending the Start-up ecosystem for their inputs in drafting the Bill, the Minister allayed the fear that none of their input was removed during the debate on the Bill at the Federal Executive Council meeting.

He said it was a deliberate intention to seek the inputs of the stakeholders before drafting the Bill. “We decided to experiment with the down-top approach so the stakeholders would own the bill”, Prof Pantami stated.

The Minister expressed optimism that when passed into law, the Bill would address most of the challenges facing the sector and the sector would be good for it.

Speaking in the same vein on the challenges facing the Start-up, the NITDA’s Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE noted that the government recognises the disconnect that exists between it and the industry, hence ready to bridge it.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the event, Prof Pat Utomi, noted that it has become imperative for the public and private sector to be seamlessly engaged for the development of the sector in order to help the country to witness the growth of the sector.

He was optimistic that the value of the participants at the session could change the fortune of the country in particular and Africa in general, adding that the government would take advantage of the engagement to proffer solutions to identified problems by the stakeholders.

The event, which was graced by the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communication Commission, Prof. Garba Dambatta; the Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone, Prof Muhammad Abubakar; Post-Master General, Nigeria Postal Service, Dr Ismaila Adewusi, captains of Industry and other start-up companies was culminated with the visits to Flutterwave, Treeps and Reliance Health Management Organisation, where the Minister commended them for brazing the trails and surmounting various challenges that have faced them.