5 Things You Should Know About the Nigeria Startup Bill assented to by President Buhari Today

On Wednesday, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami announced in a Twitter post, that President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Nigeria Startup Bill.

Buhari signed the Bill, which is described as “a joint initiative by Nigeria’s tech startup ecosystem and the Presidency to harness the potential of our digital economy through co-created regulations,” into law following passage by the House of Representatives in July 2022.

“The objective of this (Bill) is to provide a legal and institutional framework for the development of startups in Nigeria,” the policy document said.

Now that the Bill is Law, here are 5 things you should know about Nigeria’s latest Act:

1. To ease the process of setting up a startup in Nigeria, the Act made provision for the creation of a Startup Support and Engagement Portal which will, among other things, “facilitate the issuance of a permit or licence to a labelled startup”; as well as a Startup Consultative Forum made up of startups, investors, tech hubs, Nigerian Computer Society, among others, to facilitate information sharing and collaboration in the tech ecosystem.
2. The Law is designed for “labelled startups”, which among other things, must have at least 51% of its shares held by one or more Nigerians.
3. There is a Startup Investment Seed Fund which will provide startups with finance to grow and scale.
4. The Law makes provisions for training, capacity building, and development of tech talent in the country.
5. There’ll be tax and fiscal incentives for labelled startups, their investors and employees, as well as their external service providers.

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