Nigeria is said to have attracted about $1 billion in funding to the technology startup ecosystem in 2022, according to the Founder of CcHub, Bosun Tijani.
In a television program on Tuesday, Tijani said the technology ecosystem is fast becoming big and currently has the capacity to attract over $10 billion in funding.
“When we started CcHub about 14 years ago, it was difficult for folks to actually get funded. People struggled to find $5000 to back their businesses. But it was then that we reached out to a billionaire, who created a fund that is now funding firms across Africa.
“As of last year, Nigeria alone raised over $1 billion in funding for technology businesses in the country. But about six years ago, we were seriously struggling to get about $200 million into this economy.
“This is not from the government, and I don’t think it is necessarily the government’s role to actually fund businesses. The government is to create an enabling environment for investors and investments to come in,” Tijani stated.
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He disclosed that there has been significant progress over the years, but lots of work still needs to be done. He stressed that there are so many things that still need to be done to inspire confidence and drive much more money into the ecosystem.
“Going by the trajectory of what we have seen lately, Nigeria is a country that can be attracting $10 billion to technology companies almost on a yearly basis.
“For this to happen, we need to plug into the innovation communities around us. When we started CcHub 14 years ago, we were the first in the country, and today, I think Nigeria has over 150 technology hubs spread across the country, doing amazing things, developing solutions, and solving problems.
“It is about being part of the community because that is where things happen. With that opportunity, one can gain access to resources, know how to build businesses, how to scale them and make them sustainable thereafter. The most important thing is how you eventually gain access to funding,” he stated.
Speaking on the Startup Act, the CcHub boss said it shows that something is happening in the country’s technology ecosystem. He, however, said there is still a need to further create the right policies and regulations to back it up because innovation is expensive and intentional.
According to him, the normal law of doing business doesn’t really support innovation, explaining that innovation is not entrepreneurship, “but innovation cannot be completed without innovation. So, the laws that will drive innovation have to be intentional, which is what the Startup Act is all about. In more advanced countries, they have what is called the National Innovation System; the Startup Act needs to be in this regard to be able to strengthen innovation across the board, where there are vast opportunities not just for startups but for large corporations and microbusinesses to also innovate. This is because when more people innovate, we are going to see more people solve our problems.”
(omayowa@globalfinancialdigest.com; Newsroom: +234 8033 964 138)
