OPINION

  • All
  • Opinion
will-ai-replace-software-developers

Will AI replace software developers?

byTechnology Times Contributor
16/03/2023
0
101

financial-success-how-traders-can-step-up-games

How small businesses, traders can up their game for financial success

byTechnology Times Contributor
24/02/2023
0
105

why-change-management-matters-in-workplace

Why change management matters in evolving workspaces

byTechnology Times Contributor
24/02/2023
0
106

business-cybersecurity-strategy

Why humans should lead your business cybersecurity strategy

byTechnology Times Contributor
22/02/2023
0
123

chinenyen-mba-uzoukwu-convocation-lecture

Finding the Boundaries of the Possible, Venturing Beyond | UNILAG Convovocation Lecture by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu

byTechnology Times Contributor
21/02/2023
0
125

how-to-spot-online-romance-scams

From dating to defrauding: Online romance scams surge as criminals cash in on lonely hearts

byTechnology Times Contributor
08/02/2023
0
111

malware-cybercrime-trends-2023-emmanuel-asika

Rise of ₦7,000 malware kits and cybercrime trends coming our way in 2023

byTechnology Times Contributor
02/02/2023
0
118

cloud-security-whose-fault-is-it

Cloud Security: Whose fault is it? 

byTechnology Times Contributor
31/01/2023
0
112

ryan-mer-on-fraud-trends-2023

‘It’s easier to hack people than to hack machines’ and other frauds trends every CFO should know 

byTechnology Times Contributor
31/01/2023
0
111

kaspersky-chatgpt-will-influence-cybersecurity

Kaspersky: How ChatGPT will influence cybersecurity

byTechnology Times Contributor
25/01/2023
0
116

technology-bolster-africas-growth-moses-muthui

How technology can bolster Africa’s growth and competitiveness

byTechnology Times Contributor
25/10/2022
0
113

cloud-services-bring-automation-to-printing

Cloud services can bring the benefits of automation to every print business

byTechnology Times Contributor
12/10/2022
0
132

Load More
  • Home
  • BIG STORY
  • Digital Transformation Series
  • ARTICLE SECTIONS
    • Tech News
    • Consumer Tech
    • Opinion
    • Interviews
    • Tech Market Updates
    • Promoted
Friday, March 24, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
Technology Times
Technology Times
No Result
View All Result
Home Interviews

Guobadia, President’s Digital Transformation SSA, says new Nigerian Startup Act 2022 is ‘welcome initiative that will address japa 100%’

In an exclusive interview with Technology Times on the Nigerian Startup Act 2022, Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Digital Transformation to the President of Nigeria, explains the importance of the new signed on Monday by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Sandra NwaikubySandra Nwaiku
20/10/2022
in Tech News, Interviews
Reading Time: 7 mins read
3 0
A A
1
oswald-guobadia-on-nigerian-startup-act-2022

Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Digital Transformation to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and Lead of Nigeria Startup Bill.

ADVERTISEMENT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on WhatsAppShare on Telegram

In an exclusive interview with Technology Times, Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Digital Transformation to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, explains the importance of the Nigerian Startup Act 2022 signed into law on Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari’s assent of the Nigeria Startup Act 2022, Mr Guobadia says, represents a major step for youth innovation in the technology innovation ecosystem in the country as the nation faces rising emigration of citizens in search of greener pasture popularly called japa.

Mr Guobadia is also the Lead of Nigeria Startup Bill, a joint initiative by Nigeria’s tech startup ecosystem and the Presidency “to harness the potential of our digital economy through co-created regulations” says the coming of the new law represents “a milestone initiative.”

Speaking with Technology Times yesterday, the same day that President Buhari signed the new Nigeria Startup Act 2022 in Aso Villa, the nation’s seat of power in Abuja, the President’s Digital Transformation SSA reckons that the new law will ‘100%’ help to address the japa phenomenon in the interview below:

 

oswald-guobadia-on-nigerian-startup-act-2022
Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Digital Transformation to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and Lead of Nigeria Startup Bill.

So when you say japa, we are no longer doing japa from Nigeria. We are even saying don’t japa from your state. Don’t japa from your village. That’s the level we are looking at. Just stay where you are and create value there. 

Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia.

 

Technology Times: Mr Guobadia, what’s your reaction to today’s news as communicated via Twitter by the Communications and Digital Economy Minister that the Nigeria Startup bill, which you have worked tirelessly with other stakeholders to see become law has finally been signed into law by President Buhari. What’s your initial reaction?

Guobadia: My reaction is “congratulations to the entire ecosystem and the youths of Nigeria.” I mean, this is a milestone initiative that is going to create an enabling environment for young Nigerians to grow fantastic ideas that are going to impact the world. Well, I’m quite excited.

Related Articles

Minister: Cyber attacks crossed 3.8m during Guber polls

NCC: IXPN now drives higher bandwidth at lower cost in Nigeria

Harmonised Short Codes: Mobile operators get May 17 deadline

Mba-Uzoukwu: With 2023 General Election, INEC sowed seeds of technology distrust in Nigerians  

Minister: Nigeria hit by 6,997,277 cyber threats on Presidential election day

Load More

Technology Times: The law broadly creates an enabling environment, if we don’t bother delving into the key specifics because we don’t know yet or we haven’t seen the copy signed into law by the President. But from your experts and inside knowledge thus far, when you say that this represents a major win for the Nigerian youth, in what key areas if you would like to dwell on the specifics? 

Guobadia: From what the Honorable Minister said today (yesterday), this was done as a bottom-up approach. We used an approach which we called the big tent approach, which means that there were no doors and everybody was welcome to contribute to developing the Nigerian Startup Act. So it basically covers a number of areas that issue. I’ll try to explain them with three words: collaboration, engagements and linkages. 

Now the bill made a  good effort in ensuring the collaboration between the practitioners and value creators in the ecosystem and government by establishing a Council. And this Council is being chaired by Mr President himself and it also has the Vice President and a number of key Ministers who also sit on this Council. 

In addition to that, we also have the private sector, also sitting on this Council that would enable issues can be tabled, policies can be reviewed at that level, and directives can be given that will be executed by the Council. 

I mean, this is a milestone initiative that is going to create an enabling environment for young Nigerians to grow fantastic ideas that are going to impact the world. Well, I’m quite excited.

Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia.

Also, there’s the idea of a portal which provides an opportunity for services to be provided by governments to the practitioners themselves. And when I say practitioners I mean the founders, the value creators themselves. So a number of different things like simple activities you think “CAC” is going to be brought closer to I’ll say the market, but really to the founders and practitioners. 

They also have a consultative forum, which is a group of people involved in the ecosystem. So think academia, think founders, think funders and it’s from that group of people that you will now get who goes to sit on the Council to bring the issues of the ecosystem to Mr President. 

So that’s collaboration and that also covers for engagements because what the bill intends to really do to continue to drive collaboration and engagement within the ecosystem. 

The ecosystem is actually made up of two parts. One part is the practitioners like we’ve said several times, and the policymakers. So this is going to continue to drive that engagement and collaboration between both parties. 

Then the bill goes ahead and has a number of incentives or I’ll just put them under linkages? Linkages are basically you know, looking at our education, looking at research, looking at even the Nigerian Stock Exchange providing incentives to ensure that all these different areas are able to tie into this ecosystem. 

So it does in two different ways for the Nigerian Stock Exchange to give incentives to help lift people onto the exchange. For research, It gives a number of incentives including tax benefits to do research. For education, it gives a lot of linkages to ensure that you get a pipeline of educated young people into the sector to continue to grow it. And it tries to support hubs and all the supporting organisations that help founders, incubators, funders, and some tax rebates for investors with the caveat of some form of performance mechanisms. It’s a tax rebate based on the delivery of certain things.

So the bill basically plants a lot of seeds to help increase collaboration between the government and the sector because the numbers that we’re seeing right now are low, and what is required is creating an enabling environment. So what this bill does is just in different areas planting seeds, get it growing, invigorated, and helps put it all together.

You know, one of the key beliefs that I have is that the next startup that will impact the world will start in a Nigerian village; will start in an African village. 

Mr Oswald Osaretin Guobadia.

Technology Times: There’s a part of your response that touched quite profoundly on a trend we’ve seen in the last few years and that’s the trend is couched in the street language called japa. Now, you said that this new law would have benefits, you spoke exactly about educated young youths and founders, which are also demographics that we’ve seen doing this emigration trend out of Nigeria. Do you think that this new law would, in a way, address that, and if you have a message to Nigerian youths that are embracing japa, what would be your message to them following the new law that’s coming into force?

I think 100% this is going to do that. One of the problems we have had is the linkages between the different areas that go into value creation. 

That is, when we look at education, what are the programmes that are offered in schools? How early are you learning Computer Science? You know, one of the key beliefs that I have is that the next startup that will impact the world will start in a Nigerian village; will start in an African village. 

So when you make such a bold statement, you now start to think about what are the different things we need to put in place to ensure that that happens, right? So those are areas that we have to work towards.

For japa, nobody really wants to leave home but once you make home comfortable and fruitful, right, which is what the bill is trying to do; to ensure that home is comfortable and fruitful. Nobody really wants to leave home. Right?  So ultimately, we do not only believe to make Nigeria comfortable and fruitful, but the Nigerian Startup Act in phase two is actually looking at how to have the bill adopted at state levels. 

So when you say japa, we are no longer doing japa from Nigeria. We are even saying don’t japa from your state. Don’t japa from your village. That’s the level we are looking at. Just stay where you are and create value there. 

So the fabric of innovation and the fabric of support will go across the entire country when you start doing state adoption.  In the very next step, Lagos has already announced, Kaduna has announced, I think Edo is looking into it, FCT is looking into it and a number of states are looking into it. I’m sure the election is what’s slowing them down. But states will start to adopt the Nigerian Startup Act and deploy it in their own strategic format. 

At the end of the day, states will be competing for companies and startups to come to their states based on infrastructure, resources, and policies, having the right policies will drive who and where you start your business.

So the japa phenomenon is not just leaving Lagos. I heard a very interesting person say recently that the japa phenomenon actually started with the japa into Lagos. So we’ve long had these things. So it is really about creating values where they currently are.

 

Editor’s Note: The article has been updated to reflect the correct day of Wednesday that the President signed the bill from the earlier-stated Monday. We apologise for the error.

Tags: japanigerian startup actnigerian startup act 2022nigerian startup billnigerian startupsOswald Osaretin Guobadia
Share60Tweet37Share10SendShare

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe
ADVERTISEMENT
Sandra Nwaiku

Sandra Nwaiku

Related Articles

nigeria-cyber-attacks-peak-during-guber-polls
Tech News

Minister: Cyber attacks crossed 3.8m during Guber polls

byTechnology Times Staff
22/03/2023
0
106

Nigeria’s internet space was hit by over 3.8 million cyber attacks...

Read more

NCC: IXPN now drives higher bandwidth at lower cost in Nigeria

Harmonised Short Codes: Mobile operators get May 17 deadline

Mba-Uzoukwu: With 2023 General Election, INEC sowed seeds of technology distrust in Nigerians  

Minister: Nigeria hit by 6,997,277 cyber threats on Presidential election day

Starlink: MTN Nigeria places new ‘competitor’ under close watch, CEO says  

Comments 1

  1. Anthony says:
    5 months ago

    Like everything government, this is another wash wash in the making.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

nineteen + eighteen =

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

LATEST ARTICLES

5g-airtel-makes-5g-growth-drivers-league

5G: Airtel makes league to drive market growth to $792.7b

23/03/2023
identity-and-access-management-market

Identity and Access Management market to reach $53.1b by 2032

23/03/2023
aws-fintech-africa-accelerator-opens

AWS FinTech Africa Accelerator opens, targets African talents

23/03/2023
nigeria-cyber-attacks-peak-during-guber-polls

Minister: Cyber attacks crossed 3.8m during Guber polls

22/03/2023
ixpn-lowers-bandwidth-cost-nigeria

NCC: IXPN now drives higher bandwidth at lower cost in Nigeria

22/03/2023
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Popular News

  • inec-suffered-cyber-attack-nigeria-computer-society

    Presidential Election 2023: INEC server suffered cyber attack, was not robust, Nigeria Computer Society says

    101 shares
    Share 40 Tweet 25
  • PC: How to spot symptoms of CPU failure

    134 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34
  • Elon Musk bows to NCC order to charge Starlink Nigeria subscribers in Naira

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Nigeria General Election 2023: Buhari sets up cybersecurity team as 622 hotline goes live

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • NCC: Nigeria lost 9m phone lines over Minister’s SIM registration order 

    59 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15

Recommended

  • Tech News
nigeria-cyber-attacks-peak-during-guber-polls

Minister: Cyber attacks crossed 3.8m during Guber polls

22/03/2023
106
ixpn-lowers-bandwidth-cost-nigeria

NCC: IXPN now drives higher bandwidth at lower cost in Nigeria

22/03/2023
103
harmonised-short-codes-nigeria

Harmonised Short Codes: Mobile operators get May 17 deadline

22/03/2023
101
mba-uzoukwu-inec-sowed-tech-distrust-nigeria

Mba-Uzoukwu: With 2023 General Election, INEC sowed seeds of technology distrust in Nigerians  

20/03/2023
110
nigeria-hit-by-cyber-threats-election-day

Minister: Nigeria hit by 6,997,277 cyber threats on Presidential election day

15/03/2023
107
starlink-nigeria-under-mtn-nigeria-watch-ceo

Starlink: MTN Nigeria places new ‘competitor’ under close watch, CEO says  

14/03/2023
106
Load More
ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Youtube LinkedIn RSS

ABOUT TECHNOLOGY TIMES

Technology Times

Nigeria Technology Media Group

Founded in 2004, Technology Times’ trusted technology news, market intelligence, views and business services reach readers and partners across Nigeria, Africa and beyond.

Contct Us

LEGAL & COMPLIANCE

Home

Privacy Policy

Terms & Conditions

Disclaimer

Guest Post Guidelines

 

TOP ARTICLES

  • oswald-guobadia-on-nigerian-startup-act-2022

    Guobadia, President’s Digital Transformation SSA, says new Nigerian Startup Act 2022 is ‘welcome initiative that will address japa 100%’

    149 shares
    Share 60 Tweet 37
  • PC: How to spot symptoms of CPU failure

    134 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34
  • LAGOS | Website to verify vehicle numbers now live

    123 shares
    Share 49 Tweet 31
  • WhatsApp users in Nigeria ‘hit by new virus spreading across Africa’

    106 shares
    Share 42 Tweet 27
  • Presidential Election 2023: INEC server suffered cyber attack, was not robust, Nigeria Computer Society says

    101 shares
    Share 40 Tweet 25

ITU PP-22: Watch Ministers from Nigeria, 99 Member States deliver policy statements

w

©2022 Technology Times is powered by Digital Transformation Media Limited, Nigeria.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Offline with Shina Badaru
  • Analysis
  • Interviews
  • Big Story
  • Columns
  • Tech @ Work
  • Digital Transformation Series

©2022 Technology Times is powered by Digital Transformation Media Limited, Nigeria.

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Go to mobile version