By Balarabe Oshiafi
The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to positioning the country as a global leader in technology innovation and entrepreneurship.
This assertion was made by the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa during the closing ceremony of the iHATCH startup incubation programme’s third cohort on Friday in Abuja.
The programme, a joint initiative of NITDA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), aims to cultivate a thriving tech ecosystem in Nigeria
According to official report made available to ExpressDay, this partnership is a major step forward in Nigeria’s efforts to promote innovation and entrepreneurship and it is in line with NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0), specifically to “Forge Strategic Partnership and Collaboration” and “Nurture an Innovative and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.”
Inuwa said in line with President Bola Tinubu administration’s priority area of Accelerating Diversification through Industrialisation, Digitisation, Creative Arts, Manufacturing and Innovation, “IHatch programme is fostering a thriving ecosystem for startups, empowering the next generation of tech innovators in Nigeria.”
The NITDA boss, while maintaining that one of the success stories of the iHatch programme is the creation of jobs, he noted that “Because of the success of cohort one and two, we decided to expand cohort 3 to five locations – Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Gombe.
“Part of the success story of Cohort 1 and 2 was, we trained 16 startups with 32 participants, however, they have created a combined job of 179 and over 1000 indirect jobs,” he added.
The Director-General recalled that the programme, which started in 2022 is designed to tackle social issues with innovative and creative solutions, generate employment opportunities, and boost Nigeria’s economic development.
He said “the initiative is designed to support young entrepreneurs by pairing founders with co-founders, guiding them through the incubation process, and teaching them the fundamentals of building a business from the ground up. The goal is to help them transform their ideas from inception into impactful ventures.”
While challenging the participants to contribute to building a mentoring platform, Inuwa promised NITDA’s support, and urged JICA to consider expanding the initiative to cover all 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory.
He further noted “at NITDA, we see this initiative as a gateway to not only enhancing local initiatives but also exploring opportunities to export Nigerian talents to Japan.”
