By Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
As part of its commitment to make Lagos an epicenter of innovation, the state government says it is working hard to domesticate Nigeria’s Startup Bill (NSB).
Special adviser to the Lagos State governor on Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, (SDG&I) and CEO, Impact Hub, Lagos, Solape Hammond, disclosed this during the unveiling of the United Nations Development Programme’s revolutionary private-public Youth Start-up Innovation Financing Facility for Africa, tagged “Timbuktoo,” in Lagos recently.
While describing the state as Africa’s startup capital, home to several emerging startups and all the Nigerian unicorns, Hammond said the partnership with UNDP aligns with the state’s framework of amplifying research, commercializing research and using research to solve very significant social challenges.
She stated that the current administration is looking at having the private and public sector come in, the security architecture and more that will be needed to continue to drive innovation int Lagos and added that it will create more 3,000 fiber optic networks in the next two years.
Hammond revealed that the government has now set aside 25,000 square meters of land in Yaba to develop Africa’s largest technology campus that will house startups, hubs, research institutions, maker labs, all sorts of R&D, all sorts of technology and prototyping which will give rise to access to international finance.
“This vision has been a long time in the making, and we are actually at the point now where we are going to break ground before the end of the year. I am sure you all know that the National startup Bill has been passed. Lagos is also working alongside that team. Lagos has also been working to pass our Lagos State start-up bill to ensure that all the things that are required to enable the ecosystem including incentives, including the right policies, and everything that is needed to work together. So Lagos is becoming the epicenter for a very good reason and it is very intentional”, she said.
The Special Adviser thereafter said the state is open to working with the UNDP and will do all it can to support this partnership.
Earlier in her opening address, Chief Innovation Officer within UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa, Eleni Gabre-Madhin, said Timbuktoo, a 10 year vision aiming to invest $1 billion to generate over 1000 start-ups scaling wants to close the $90 billion funding gap to ensure Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem achieve its potential.
“How do you incentivize the big pots of money we already have on the continent? The brick and mortar businesses, the traditional, real estate development, this enormous amount of capital pension funds, how do you unlock that and bring it in? If we are really going to turn Africa into a knowledge powerhouse, there is potential to do so.”
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© 2019 The Sun Nigeria – Managed by Netsera.