Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has named four startup ecosystem representatives to serve on the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NCDIE), one of the most significant steps yet to implement the Nigeria Startup Act, a 2022 law designed to bridge the gap between government policy and the country’s fast-growing tech sector.
The tech regulator, through its Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), said Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Victoria Manya, Charles Uchenna Emembolu, and Abba Ibrahim Gamawa were elected through the Startup Consultative Forum (SCF) to serve two-year terms on the Council.
The four “are elected to represent the interests of the startup ecosystem, make input and proposals to the Council, and ensure that founders and innovators contribute directly to achieving the Act’s objectives through policy guidelines and monitoring,” NITDA said in a statement on Monday. Their contributions, the regulator added, “will help shape Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, promote inclusivity, and ensure that innovation yields tangible economic and social impacts across the country.”
The appointments signal that Nigeria is beginning to operationalise one of the Startup Act’s key promises: giving the ecosystem a voice in policymaking. The Council is expected to guide the rollout of startup labelling, investment incentives, capacity-building programmes, and regulatory reforms envisioned by the Act.
The four representatives bring a mix of policy, entrepreneurship, and ecosystem-building experience. Aboyeji is the Founding Partner at Future Africa, the Lagos-headquartered early-stage venture capital firm; Manya is the Co-founder and Executive Director at Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API); Emembolu is the Founder of TechQuest STEM Academy and Roar Nigeria Hub and chairs the Innovation Support Network, a coalition of local tech hubs; and Gamawa is the Founder of Go Agent Limited, a Nigerian company specialising in connecting clearing agents, transporters, and importers.
The Nigeria Startup Act, signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2022, was designed to provide a legal and institutional framework to support the growth of tech-enabled startups. It addresses key challenges around funding, regulation, infrastructure, and talent, and seeks to position Nigeria as a leading digital innovation hub in Africa.
The Act establishes the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship as the central coordinating body for implementing startup policies. The Council is chaired by the President, with the Vice President serving as Vice Chairman. Other members include the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Director-General of NITDA (as Secretary), and representatives from the Nigeria Computer Society and the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, alongside the four SCF-elected startup representatives.
While the formal appointment of SCF representatives is a significant step, the real test lies in translating that into meaningful influence. Implementation of the Startup Act has faced delays: many of its incentives, such as startup labelling, tax reliefs, and funding access, depend on structures and processes that have only gradually come online. Analysts have flagged inter-agency coordination, resource constraints, and limited execution capacity as risks to actual impact.
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