The Nigerian Government has secured access to approximately $500m to initiate a local funding programme to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in the Digital sector.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani said this at a dinner in partnership with the World Bank in Abuja on Friday.
Mr Tijani said the government’s plan to domicile local funding in Nigeria and ensure that it benefits true Nigerian businesses, stressing that “it will be collaborating with the Bank of Industry.”
“So, we’ve got access to about half a billion dollars to start local funding,” he said.
“Part of my responsibilities is working with BOI to ensure that we domicile that funding locally in Nigeria, work with firms who manage and invest in businesses to ensure that those businesses that will benefit are true, real Nigerian businesses.
“And what we are going to see is that the funding is available locally and in the coming months it is going to become larger and as these funds become larger, we want to leverage that money as well,” Mr Tijani stated.
“So, the government is not just going to put half a billion and that’s it, it can bring more investors to heart as we have more money more of our innovators can have access to resources,” the Minister added.
The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to eradicating poverty, improving lives, and creating job opportunities for the country’s youth.
He emphasized the potential of leveraging digital technologies to drive transformation and outlined two key areas of partnership with Nigeria to achieve these goals.
“One of the areas that we think has the greatest potential is the area of using digital technologies to transform. Now to do that it begins with having this digital national ID,” he said.
Chaudhuri said the World Bank is collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure the successful rollout and registration of Digital National IDs for all Nigerians.
The World Bank Country Director said the ambitious target is to provide at least 148 million people of working age with a digital National ID by the middle of next year, marking a significant step towards inclusion and accessibility.
“The second is helping Nigeria lead the broadband infrastructure for broadband connectivity because without broadband connectivity, digital technologies will lead to a digital divide. So their support has been for good kinds of policies and regulations that will help invite private investment into this space and then fibre optic cables,” Chaudhuri said.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
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