President Muhammadu Buhari signs The Nigeria Startup Bill into law

Nigeria has become the latest country to pass a Startup Bill, giving a more formal approach to how the startup ecosystem is governed.

The Bill which has been in the making since May was accented to by President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this week, and the news was made public via Twitter by the country’s Minister for Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami.

Now known as the Nigeria Startup Act, the law will be an important anchor in the country’s technology developments while creating a thriving sector.

The new law introduces the Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship which will be the main custodian and will oversee its implementation. The Council comprises of the president, the governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, representatives of the Startup Consultative Forum, the Director-General of Nigeria’s information and technology regulator and other key government and private officials. They will be responsible for policy guidelines and ensuring that the bill meets its objectives.

The Key bill identifies three main challenges that it will help Nigerian startups to tackle namely; lack of an enabling environment, unclear regulatory framework and inadequate local content support. It will also help to push for protection and incentives, like tax breaks, incentives to attract foreign capital and access to an exclusive list of public and private-led local funding opportunities.

Nigeria now joins a few other African countries which include Tunisia, Kenya, Senegal and Ethiopia that have undertaken similar initiatives.