FG To Support Local Innovation, Entrepreneurship

The Federal Government has
pledged to support local innovationand entrepreneurship to enable the country shift from a consuming nation to a producing nation.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr  Isa Pantami, made the pledge at the Stakeholders Review and Validation Workshop of the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy (NDIEP), organised by the NationalInformation Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in Abuja, recently.
He noted that Nigeria had the potential to produce and deploy what it needed, adding that the government was working on providing the enabling environment by introducing the NDIEP.
“When we support our innovators and entrepreneurs, they will increase our products and position Nigerian goods for more exports. Government is providing the enabling environment for indigenous innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive. It is the key to driving the digital economy”, he said.
The minister also called on young innovators to be consistent and focused to enable them actualise their dreams.
The workshop, which was tagged “Developing an Enabling Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy,” had stakeholders from different sectors of the national innovation ecosystem to review, suggest amendments and propose implementation strategies for the policy.
Also speaking, the  Director-General of the Nigeria Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, explained that there were two types of entrepreneurship including Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), and the Innovation-Driven Enterprise (IDE).
Inuwa said that the SME is more on short term and regional benefits, while IDE grows exponentially and can expose an idea to the international market.
“The policy is designed to help us create an enabling environment to start and grow IDEs in Nigeria. By implementing the policy, we will create the IDE mindset and skill set and learn how to do business in our communities”, he said.
Inuwa noted that IDEs such as Jumia created over 5,000 jobs in 2012 when it was established, while the value grew to $1 billion in three years.
He recalled that Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, predicted that in 2025, Jumia and other potential unicorn companies would create three million jobs in Africa.
He, however, expressed regrets that out of the 615 unicorn companies in the world, only three are in Africa, two in South Africa and one in Nigeria, whereas America has 265, China 204, UK 24, while India has 21.
He noted that the government was committed to mentoring startups to develop the innovation ecosystem and translate their ideas into products for commercialisation.
In his view, the Technical Assistant to the Minister on IT, Dr Femi Adeluyi, said the policy was to leverage on digital innovation and entrepreneurship for job creation, as well as empower Nigerian youths.