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Nigeria’s IT startups boost the economy with about $101m in the first three quarters of 2018, indicating some levels of pulsating growth in the country’s tech startup ecosystem, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Isah Ali Ibrahim Pantami has said in Abuja during a keynote remark at the just ended Startup Friday organised by the Office for ICT Innovation & Entrepreneurship (OIIE), an arm of NITDA designed to help build, promote and sustain the tech startup ecosystem.
Startup Friday is one of the initiatives the OIIE uses as a rallying ground for startups, mentors, investors and other stakeholders to network.
According to Pantami, contributions by startups reflect the highs and lows of growth as the sub-sector struggles for traction.
“With the little efforts we have put in place, a lot has been achieved in the ICT sector today. In the case of our ICT startups, within the first quarter of 2018, startups generated $9m. In the second quarter, they generated $57m and recently in the third quarter, they generated $35m….This is only within 2018. This achievement is unprecedented in the history of ICT sector in Nigeria.”
There is much hope for continuous growth, said an optimistic Pantami even as he assured that the agency will continuously focus bolstering young entrepreneurs with tech solutions for the local and global market.
NITDA annually provides exposure to Nigerian startups at the Global Startup Movement in GITEX, Dubai, now a headlined event of the GITEX Technology Week which usually records over 185, 000 attendees from more than 141 countries. This year, NITDA directly sponsored about seven startups and supported more than 15 in all to be part of the Nigerian Entrepreneurs team at GITEX 2018. The agency has sponsored more than 50 startups to GITEX since 2014.
Meanwhile, patronage of local IT content has also risen significantly since the agency started the strict enforcement of local content IT procurement policies of the government including the series of executive orders by the presidency to ensure that local IT efforts get patronage.
Pantami said while only about 82,000 ICT facilities of the local content were purchased in 2013, which rose to 92,000 in 2015 and 150,000 facilities in 2016; in 2017, purchase of local content hovered around 300,750 to underscore a steady rise as NITDA’s enforcement policy gained grip.
Startup Friday had many stakeholders in attendance including hub owners, accelerators, and academics.
