- Nigeria will now benefit from the yearly $4.7 trillion exportation of digital services.
- National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) have forged an alliance to enable the benefits.
- The alliance is in line with the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pillar of the agency’s 2021-2024 Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan.
Nigeria is set to benefit from the yearly $4.7 trillion exportation of digital services.
This follows an alliance that was forged between the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
NITDA’s Corporate Affairs Department, headed by Hajiya Hadiza Umar in a statement said the alliance was in line with the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pillar of the agency’s 2021-2024 Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan.
The immediate past NEPC Executive Director, Segun Awolowo in a a press briefing to commemorate the consolidation and partnership between the two organizations lauded the deal.
According to the NITDA Director-General Kashifu Inuwa, the partnership is aimed at facilitating the exportation of digital services.
Exchange of ideas and knowledge
Inuwa who was represented at the event by the Acting Director, Corporate Planning and Strategy (CPS) Dr. Aristotle Onumo further pointed out that more partnerships of this nature from the public and private sectors would bring out synergy, exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing among them.
He went ahead to say that the digital innovation and entrepreneurship pillar of SRAP enables NITDA to easily collaborate with relevant stakeholders in the exportation of indigenous services.
“It would not have been so for NITDA to collaborate with sister Agencies that have similar visions to drive digital economy to its rightful place in Nigeria,” he said.
Support grant to innovation hubs
The partnership, Awolowo noted, has provided about $362,597-support grant to innovation hubs across three geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
He said about $725,193.60 in grants to support Start-ups that are exporting and have potential to export services in the Entertainment Tech, FinTech, EduTech and LogisticsTech sectors.
“We are also providing support to drive advocacy to ensure that the Nigerian Start-up Bill is passed by the end of the year,” he said.
Digital infrastructure
He noted that due to the level of inter-agency collaboration between NITDA and NEPC, they have been able to attend to all areas of the services export ecosystem from regulatory challenges to access to market and finance, skills gaps, and most importantly digital infrastructure.
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It could be recalled that some of the achievements of the partnership include the Outsource Nigeria Initiative, financial interventions for six start-ups, support to three innovation hubs, setting up of skills acceleration centres and advocacy support for the Nigerian Start-up Bill.