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Bukola Afeni
National Information Technology Development Agency( NITDA) and MassChallenge, have partnered to catalyse and support national startup community in Nigeria.
The Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, made the disclosure at an online media briefing in Abuja.
According to him, the partnership is meant to promote Nigeria as an emerging entrepreneurial hub, and leader of innovation in Africa.
“It will support job creation and economic development.
It will foster the growth and success of Nigeria’s startup enterprises by connecting entrepreneurs with markets, networks, and capital in the global innovation ecosystem.
It will also facilitate key strategies to complement growing innovation initiatives within Nigeria.”
In the same vein, he said the initiative is meant to support Nigerian startups have a breakthrough, not a breakdown, during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
“The initiative is designed to identify and accelerate top startups based in Nigeria and grow their businesses to serve the Nigerian and global market.
The Agency has also contributed to Nigeria’s exit from recent recession. Most importantly, our innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives have attracted more foreign investments into the country’s digital economy. We have also created new economic industries such as software, business process outsourcing and data protection, contributing to our national economy significantly.”
Speaking further he added that Nigeria is a leader in the digital skills and startup ecosystem in Africa.
“The investments attracted by our startups confirms the position. Recently, Flutterwave announced new funding of $170m, and Stripe acquired Paystack for more than $200m. Other Nigerian technology companies like Interswitch have raised funding in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Speaking at the event, Senior Manager Global Partnerships, Mass challenge, Sunanda Naranya, said her organization is ready to bring new innovations among start up in Nigeria.
“We deal with eco development and provide access to corporate partners and innovators.
We are here to work with NITDA, we are coming as an unbiased medium to improve the country.
We know that the media is playing a great role in developing the economy, so we decided to partner with the media in this regard”.
“We have worked in 18 countries, and worked with start up who have created several jobs.
Mass challenge will be working closely with entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
We will give entrepreneurs the opportunity to bring innovative ideas, which will bring about national development”.
