The Nigeria Informatiion Technology Development Agency, NITDA will partner with the global tech giant, Amazon Web services to provide funding for Startups in the country.
During a discussion with the AWS team in Dubai on the sidelines of the 2022 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, GITEX, Director General of NITDA Mr. Inuwa Kashifu Abudullahi said funding is very fundamental to start ups as it eases their capacity for growth and expansion.
Abdullahi said NITDA is rising to its responsibility of suppoorting start-ups with useful information, connections, partnerships and mentorship to enable them unleash their talents.
” We are bringing the start-ups to AWS and to Amazon to connect them and also to help them to understand the platform because AWS is one of the biggest platforms start-ups use to innovate. They provide infrastructure as a service and platform as a service. So it provides the environment to innovate, experiment and build their products, because most of these Startups are products, the technology is a business you will see the noble strategy, the noble strategy or noble product today becoming a major stake tomorrow.”
The NITDA Director General Mr. Inuwa Kashifu Abubakar said they are bringing the Startups to interface with the AWS team so they understand how big companies function and ways they can leverage on their expertise to grow their brands because they must remeber that they are only as good as their products and build their businesses around such platforms.
On available financing, especially credit facilities, Mr. Abubakar said the incentives available to Startups from AWS will help with difficulties the young business starters experience.
“One of the challenges these start-ups are having today is they have to use forex to make payment and access services. So part of the conversation we had with AWS is how can startups pay in Naira? So Amazon is already in Nigeria, AWS is in Nigeria now it is to explore how the start-ups can pay in Naira, that means as the company is in Nigeria they don’t have to worry about forex to access these services.”
Abubakar said another challenge is the big tech companies capacity to dominate but having this interface with the start-ups provides the enabling environment for collaboration.
“It is easier for our startups to build our digital platforms than getting someone from outside t to come and build the services so this will open doors for our start-ups to understand and the incentives this platform provides they will benefit from it because AWS also wants to encourage local start-ups to grow and build their services”.
He said “the technology businesses about the number, you need to reach out and it is part of the UN SDGs to get everybody to be digitally visible, so if you are not digitally visible you will be forgotten“.
In their presentations, the AWS team made up of Ashibi Sinha, Mark Birch and Olamide Sawyyer walked the start-up teams through products available to them on the platform and that credit facilities of up to 100 thousand US dollars with a 24month repayment period is theirs for the taking.
They said tailor-made conversations and one-on-one discussions will be planned for them in a bid to help improve their brands, expand their portfolios , harness their talents and provide unrivalled visibility.
Chief Executive Officer, NIGENIUS, a platform that provides quality teaching for teachers, Kelechi Uchenna, said the meeting was a big door of opportunities that has been opened to them for which they are highly appreciative.
“Amazon is one of the biggest tech companies in the worl so its worth it to be here, Money is everything it gives you the ability and capacity to do more so yes the financial aspect is a plus”.
Among the 33 start-ups from Nigeria at the exhibition, 4 are competing to win honours at the event and fingers are crossed that they will win.
Hauwa Abu
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