The APC-led government of Nigeria has made great strides in fulfilling its promise to support innovation and entrepreneurship in the nation by partnering with existing enterprise development organizations across the country.
As proof of this, Saturday the 7th of May marks the launch of a startup-incubation program - “Startup Nigeria”, the program is private sector led and supported by the National Social Investment Office (NSIO) in the Office of the Vice President as part of the Federal Government’s support for Innovation Hubs across the country
In October 2016, Vice President Yemi Osinabjo had stated that the Federal Government will support 8 Private Sector led Innovation hubs in the country, one in each of the six geopolitical zones, and one each in Lagos and Abuja.
In the fulfilment of this promise, the Startup Nigeria project is an incubation program, in partnership with existing hubs and enterprise development organisations, for young Nigerian startups in the North-Central and South-East regions which are in the idea or early traction phase of their enterprises. It has been designed to help Nigerians with amazing, innovative ideas create viable products, go to market, and gain traction.
While talking with Mr. Ife Adebayo the Special Assistant to the Vice president on entrepreneurship and innovation on the program he said “remember Mr Vice President made this promise himself, but before we rushed to implement we had to consult with stakeholders in the ecosystem and also look at what had been done in the past and learn from it. One of the key learnings for us was that it is better for Government to support private sector led hubs rather than establishing new ones.
We then had to go through the Government’s procurement process and select the companies, which of course means this took some time. I am glad that we are now about to launch across the regions and I am excited to see what the results of the incubation program in the North Central and South East will be.
The program will mainly be focused on finding startups/innovators who either have ideas or startups solving the challenges of Agriculture and Governance in the North-Central region, and of Commerce and Finance in the South-Eastern areas of Nigeria.
Startup Nigeria is being Spearheaded by Emerging Platforms who is partnering with Ventures Platform Foundation and Genesys Tech Hub to implement the program in the North-Central and South-Eastern Regions respectively.
The entire program will be transparent, and everyone is invited to be a part of the journey by connecting with Startup Nigeria’s social media platforms - @startsng – on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to leave feedback and support the selected candidates.
Interested candidates are invited to Apply via the website www.startupnigeria.ng to take advantage of this opportunity and have their innovative ideas taken from mind to market with the help of a great entrepreneurship development team and the powerful backing of the government. Applications into the Startup Nigeria program will be open from 7th- 19th April, 2018.
