Assertions that small businesses remain the bedrock of a growing economy as Nigeria have been justified on various grounds. These businesses amount to over 70 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is one fact that has been used on major grounds to justify the postulation. This, having found ground of reliability, has informed submissions to the government to focus on policies friendly to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to find reasonable place of resort.
Successive governments in Nigeria have also spoken and made efforts in some measures to align with the need. This has been particularly recurring. However, the depth and strength of policies and interventions of the government to this end have been a subject of critical concern.
The recent government led by President Bola Tinubu would not also leave out interventions to help existing MSMEs and expand the scope of this proportion of the economy. As part of its measures of intervention to expand the stretch of small business threshold, the Federal Government recently has announced the launch of a portal for the Startup Support and Engagement Portal.
The portal, which is a key requirement of the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act, is meant to drive the identification and aggregation of startups in the country.This development is coming a year after the Startup Act was signed into law by the former President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, in his disclosure on X (Twitter) regarding the portal, had tweeted, “We are pleased to announce the launch of the Startup Support and Engagement Portal, https://startup.gov.ng/, a key requirement for the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act. The startup portal will drive the identification and aggregation of Nigerian startups, venture capital companies, hubs, and innovation centres to facilitate engagement and support for ecosystem players.”
He had added that “Nigerian startup venture capital companies, hubs, and innovation centres to register at the portal https://startup.gov.ng/ and look forward to working with all industry stakeholders to ensure that we fully implement the Startup Act for the benefit of our innovation ecosystem. Cc: NITDA Nigeria.”
Tweeting in support, the former Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari (Digital Transformation) and lead, Nigeria Start Up Bill, Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, had said, “The work is ahead. This announcement by the government is an indication that collaboration is key to sustainable policy development. Beneficiaries must remain engaged.”
Indications around the launch of the portal, it was noted, will allow the government to initiate the process of setting up startup consultative forums to select representatives to the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, to facilitate discourse and consensus among ecosystem players.
While the initiative is a welcome idea, it is however pertinent that the government drive the purpose concertedly with robust depth to ensure it doesn’t fail as one of the numerous initiatives which ended up in limbo without any remarkable effectiveness to the intended purpose.
To give optimum practicality to the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act, it is pertinent that all architecture be galvanised commensurately to achieve the intended goals and objectives. Given that the portal has been noted as one of its implementation wings, it is essential that coordination of the mechanism of the Startup Support and Engagement Portal be effectively and efficiently managed to achieve the intended goals.