The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and its agencies like NITDA will work closely with Nigerian startups to ensure the procurement of technology solutions without going through unnecessary bureaucratic processes, an official said.
Upon approval by the Federal Executive Council recently, the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) is billed to invite all startups to come and showcase their solutions, while all government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) will also be there to look at solutions that can meet their needs.
Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), disclosed this at Co-Create 2022, a tech exhibition event organized by Gage Awards in Lagos.
Inuwa said: “In the area of government procurement, we know that some of you are having challenges because of the bureaucratic processes involved. But the Federal Executive Council has approved that we should work with you to come up with a simpler process so that government can buy from you.”
“We have so many problems in Nigeria today which require innovative solutions. So, this kind of collaboration can open doors for that. And collaboration is very important because, in innovation, you cannot succeed in isolation; it is about the ecosystem. If you look around the world, innovation is not distributed evenly. It happens in clusters. Then what is so unique about those clusters? It is all about the ecosystem.
“The government as a key component of the ecosystem will continue to create the enabling environment and interventions in terms of policy and infrastructure. But you also need capital to grow.
One of the major challenges we’re having in Nigeria is that every startup needs a seed fund from the government, and we know this is not possible. Government cannot provide seed funding for everyone, but we have people with money, and if you can convince them, they can invest in your startup,” he added.