N’Assembly Urges More Awareness on Startup Act

Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja

The National Assembly has urged the  federal government to create more awareness on the recently-enacted Startup Act, to enable Nigerian youth to know the benefits and opportunities derivable from with the legislation.

The Chairman, Senate committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, Senator, Oseni Yakubu gave the admonition at the opening ceremony of Digital Nigeria Conference 2022, organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said although he had been doing it in his own capacity, there was the need for the  the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to do more.

Yakubu said: “The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy should create more awareness of the Startup Act for Nigerian youths to know the benefits and opportunities that abound with it.

“We are going to collaborate with the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy to create this awareness and I’ve been doin my little bit to create awareness of the potentials of the bills. 

“I trust Nigerian Youths the are very intelligent and talented and I am sure they will key into it .And also contribute their qouta to the GDP and placing Nigeria in the ICT world map.”

He also spoke on the government’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft to train five million Nigerians, adding that, “the five million young people that we are talking about are going to be trained (by Microsoft). The jobs are already there, awaiting the youth to key in.”

“When Mr. President signed the bill into law. The government decided that a total of five billion naira will be used as starting grant. It means that there are other funds we are expecting in the sector from other sources so that we can have something to fall back to.

This Microsoft training is key because the chain effect will be enormous and very impactful on the Nigerian economy.

“The question is are we aware? Are we ready to tap into this opportunities?” He said 

In his remarks, the Minister of Communication Isa Pantami said: “We have shown that the digital economy can greatly support the traditional economy. The contribution of the digital economy to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Nigeria and in its role in making the economy resilient to adverse events like the COVID-19 pandemic are two good examples of the impact of the digital economy on the traditional economy.”