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Tag: Start-up

  • Senate passes Nigeria Start-up Bill

    Senate passes Nigeria Start-up Bill

    The Senate has passed the Nigerian Start-up Bill, 2022. The passage of the bill followed the adoption of a report of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security at Wednesday’s plenary.

    Presenting the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Sen.Oseni Yakubu said that the bill sought to provide for the establishment of the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

    According to him, the council, upon its establishment, would create and develop an enabling environment for technology-enabled start-ups in Nigeria.

    Also at plenary, a bill for an act to provide for the ease of doing business to ensure transparency, efficiency and productivity in Nigeria and for other related matters passed second reading.

    The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice (APC – Ondo).

    The bill after consideration was referred by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Trade and Investment for further legislative input.

    The Committee was given two weeks to report back to the chamber in plenary.

    Similarly, a bill to establish the Federal Nephrology and Kidney Research and Treatment Centre Hadejia, also scaled second reading.

    The bill, sponsored by Sen. Hassan Ibrahim Hadejia (APC – Jigawa), was referred to the Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) for further legislative input.

    The Committee which has Sen.Yahaya Oloriegbe as Chairman was given four weeks to send its report back to the senate.

  • Nigerian tech Start-up wins $10,000 at Commonwealth Youth Forum in Kigali

    Salubata Technologies, a Nigerian start-up has emerged as one of the top four winners of Kigali Startup Festival 2022 at the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF) in Kigali, Rwanda.

    Yewande Adebowale, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Salubata, which transforms plastic wastes into customised shoes, received a prize of 10,000 dollars at the closing ceremony of the Forum.

    Newsmen reports that the Youth Forum is one of the four that took place ahead of the main Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM).

    According to the organisers, no fewer than 400 entries were received for the startup awards which is in four categories: green innovation, inter-trade, agricultural innovation and digital geeks.

    Adebowale’s entry was selected in the Green Innovation Guru Award category.
    In an interview with newsmen on Wednesday, the Salubata COO, said her products impacted on the Nigerian economy.

    ‘‘We wanted to do something that impacts on everyday part of our lives. We’ve always seen plastic wastes around us and have always looked for ways to help the environment.

    “We believe these customizable shoes from Salubata could help stamp out plastic wastes in its entirety.

    “We believe we are making a very significant change, particularly from an environmental viewpoint, because the volume of plastic wastes in our environments keeps growing every year,” she said.

    Meanwhile, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Rwanda, Aishatu Musa has congratulated the Nigerian youth delegation to CHOGM 2022 for representing the country well.

    The High Commissioner, who hosted the delegates at the Chancery in Kigali, urged them to continue to portray Nigeria as a country of innovators and entrepreneurs.

    “It is great to see young people from Nigeria doing great things. I must commend your efforts and contributions in trying to address some of the challenges facing the commonwealth countries.

    “Nigeria is blessed with lots of talents and the youth are the country’s pride, so I urge you to be passionate about your dreams and aspirations and continue to push them to make the world a better place,” Musa said.

    She also expressed delight that the cream of young people who attended the youth forum on behalf of the country were drawn from academia, medical personnel, technology and scientific fields, youth-organisations representatives, amongst others.

    On her part, Oluwakemi Areola, leader of the delegation and aide to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, thanked the High Commissioner for the warm reception for the delegates.
    Areola described the High Commissioner as a real motivator to young Nigerians, urging her compatriots to learn from Musa’s experience.

    She said the Nigerian delegates were among the over 350 youth leaders from the 54 countries of the Commonwealth that participated at the three-day meeting to network, exchange ideas, build skills, amongst others.

    Newsmen reports that following days of deliberations, the CYF presented a six-point action plan (The Youth Declaration) on youth development.
    This year’s forum addressed thematic areas such as governance and the rule of law, technology, skills, innovation, sustainability, health, Covid-19 and trade.

  • Google announces $4m Black founders fund for 60 eligible start-ups across Africa

    Google announces $4m Black founders fund for 60 eligible start-ups across Africa

    Google on Tuesday said that 60 eligible black-founded start-ups would receive a total of four million dollars in the second cohort of Google for Start-up Black Founders Fund (BFF).

    Mr Folarin Aiyegbusi, Google’s Head of Start-up Ecosystem, Africa, made this known in a statement announcing the opening of applications for Google for Start-up Black Founders Fund for Africa.

    Aiyegbusi said that following the success of the first cohort in 2021, Google increased its commitment in 2022 with additional one million dollars in funding, and support for 10 more founders.

    He said that it would result in a commitment of four million dollars to 60 eligible Black-founded start-ups across Africa.

    According to him, BFF Africa is open to start-ups in Nigeria, Botswana, Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

    He said that while the 13 countries were the prime focus due to their active tech and start-up ecosystems, strong applications from other African countries would be considered.

    ‘’The Black Founders Fund Africa demonstrates our commitment to supporting innovations in underserved areas.

    ‘’Black-led tech start-ups face an unfair venture capital funding environment; that is why we are committed to helping them thrive to be better and ensure the success of communities and economies in our region.

    ‘’The fund will provide cash awards and hands-on support to 60 Black-led start-ups in Africa, which we hope will aid in developing affordable solutions to fundamental challenges affecting those at the base of the socio-economic pyramid in Africa.

    ‘’We are hopeful that the support received by the Black founders will enable them to grow their businesses and, in turn, drive economic growth in Africa as they create solutions and give back to their communities,” he said.

    According to him, selected start-ups will receive between $50,000 and $100,000 non-dilutive cash awards and up to $200,000 per start up in Google Cloud credits.

    Aiyegbusi said that support in the form of training and access to a network of mentors to assist in tackling challenges unique to each start-up, would be provided.

    He said that early-stage start-ups with black founders or diverse founding teams were eligible for selection for BFF.

    According to him, start-ups which are benefitting Black community and those operating and headquartered in Africa as well as those with diverse founding team, with at least one Black founding member, were also eligible.

    He said that those having legal presence on the continent and building technology solutions for Africa and the global market and those with potential to raise more funding and create jobs were equally eligible.

    Recall that the Google for Start-ups Black Founders Fund was launched in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement as part of Google’s racial equality commitment.

    The initiative is aimed at driving economic opportunities for Black business owners.

    Interested applicants can find more information at http://goo.gle/BFFAfrica.

    Application closes on May 31, while winners will be announced on July 29.

  • GITEX 2020: Nigeria to benefit from $50m Start-up investment

    GITEX 2020: Nigeria to benefit from $50m Start-up investment

    The Federal Government on Sunday, says about 50 million dollars foreign investments is already being attracted into the economy for the support of various start-ups in the country through its digital economy and innovations policy.

    The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, shortly after unveiling Nigeria’s Pavillion at the 2020 40th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX).

    Pantami noted that the journey of start-ups is a tough one, but urged them to be consistent and steadfast as the breakthroughs might come after several years.

    According to him, Nigeria was not lacking in terms of innovative ideas, stating that it was the plan of the government to identify the challenges confronting the start-ups and see how government could assist them.

    The minister pointed out that start-ups in Lagos and Abuja have really made Nigeria proud as they keep attracting foreign investments into the country.

    “The start ups need to be mentored, any start-ups without mentorship cannot be successful on the platter of gold, you need to be patient, and consistent.

    “You have to be steadfast and partake in critical thinking as well as be analytic. The main challenge is not about funding, but mentoring. That is why our focus now is on mentoring our young start-ups.

    “We are also providing the enabling environment for them to thrive, so you discover that in the proposed finance bill 2020, there is reduction in small and medium enterprises taxes.

    “If we are able to implement this plan in the next five years, our start-ups are going to be celebrated not only in Nigeria, but globally,” he added.

    Pantami recalled that Amazon became a global brand with huge profit today after several years of trials and failures, expressing confidence that Nigeria start-ups which attracted the 50 million dollars investments gives hope that the future would be bright for the country.

    Mr Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in his address,said about ten Nigerian start-ups would be showcasing their innovations in Dubai this year.

    He reiterated the commitment of NITDA to continue encouraging all Nigerians to invest and participate in efforts that would boost innovation and digital economy in the country.

    GITEX is the biggest annual consumer computer and electronics trade show, exhibition, and conference in the Middle East and East Africa, that takes place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

    The 2020 GITEX which started on Dec. 6 and expected to end on Dec. 10.

  • Nigerian drone start-up gets first venture funding at UNN

    The drone company, Arone, says it has gotten the first venture funding of a start-up at the new business incubator, Roar Nigeria at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka.

    Mr Chinwe Okolo, Site Incubator Manager in a statement in Abuja on Friday said the funding was a milestone achievement for the incubator showing it had become a start-up hot spot in Southeast Nigeria.

    ‘’We got an investment of N2 million – about 5,556 dollars from two investors, Chibuzo Ujam and Echkwudi Daniel, for equity in Arone’s parent company, Magic Mirror to build our prototype drone.

    “We are on schedule to complete our prototype by the end of March,’’ Arone founder, Mr Emmanuel Ezenwere was quoted as saying.

    Ezenwere said the funding was also a milestone for the company, which was now ready to start hardware investments and major prototyping of its business idea.

    He said Arone had an idea to create a network of charging stations for drones in Nigeria in order to facilitate and increase the speed of deliveries in Nigeria.

    “An example is the ability of medicine or blood being able to be sent very quickly to patients in rural areas or making fast deliveries of groceries in cities with traffic problems.

    “Arone has world class technical ideas and knowledge and the drone idea is one of those golden nuggets you seldom see,’’ he said.

    Ezenwere said the incubator Roar Nigeria started in 2016 and now has 12 start-ups in areas ranging from eHealth to mobile services and hardware solutions.

    According to him, one of the many achievements of the Vice Chancellor of UNN, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba in collaboration with Benefiting Our Communities (BOC) innovations, a private sector organisation led by Charles Emembolu.

    The incubator is run in close relationship with Ideon Science Park of Sweden.

    “So smart, still relatively simple to understand and with a huge need in the market. I have no doubt that these guys will create groundbreaking things,’’ the External Incubator Manager Jonas Michanek was quoted as saying.

    Michanek is a Swedish entrepreneur from Ideon Science Park in Sweden, helping to set up the incubator, Roar Nigeria at UNN, Nsukka.