“Nigeria is thriving and has the most vibrant tech ecosystem in Africa, and has fintech company that is almost twice bigger than the biggest bank in Nigeria. Nigeria is thriving and has a vibrant tech ecosystem in Africa and almost 30% to all Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Africa ends in Nigeria”, says the Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Kashifu Inuwa.
According to him, the biggest bank in Nigeria is about $1.6 billion in valuation, while Flutterwave is almost $3.6 billion noting that e-commerce, e-health, mobility and logistics, e-recruitment, Agric-tech, prop-tech, and smart homes is booming in Nigeria and Africa in general.
Inuwa while giving insights into the potentials of the sector in Nigeria in a paper he presented at the Leaders Without Borders Annual Business Summit and International Honours 2023 in London, said that Nigeria’s tech ecosystem attracted about $4.4 billion investment between the year 2015, 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Speaking on the theme: “Business Beyond Borders, Global Partnerships and Sustainable Investments”, he noted that ICT contributes about 18.5% to the nation’s GDP, while NITDA also supports about 753 start-ups in different ways through trainings, seed funding and grants.
He disclosed that there are more than one hundred and twenty million Nigerians that now have access to the internet not just computer but Information and Communications Technology (ICT) noting that NITDA plans deploying local languages in its digital literacy programme.
He said that the digital economy has created a pathway for emerging technologies, provided opportunities for talented youths in Africa to emerge as global leaders, through harnessing their potentials stressing that “we have trained over 3.3 million Nigerians on digital literacy to boost the economy.”
He said that NITDA has been vibrant in supporting start-ups, IT ecosystem builders through Nigeria ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Vision (NIIEV) which has created employment for Nigerian youths.
Recently, it took some startups to Riyadh for competition, where two of them emerged as global winners with a prize of $150,000 each.
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