Tech startups get N50m grants from FG

The Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE), a subsidiary of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA),  disbursed   over N50 million grants to tech-driven startups in the country in 2015, an official has said. National Coordinator of OIIE, Bunmi Okunowo, disclosed this at the launch of the maiden edition of StartUP Friday at the OIIE […]

The Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE), a subsidiary of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA),  disbursed   over N50 million grants to tech-driven startups in the country in 2015, an official has said.
National Coordinator of OIIE, Bunmi Okunowo, disclosed this at the launch of the maiden edition of StartUP Friday at the OIIE office in Abuja.  
Okunowo explained that OIIE gave the grants to incubators and accelerators that have proven records of nurturing and producing startups with growth potential. OIIE is currently expecting the approval of its 2016 budget before it implements 2016 disbursement.
He said: “One of the major challenges facing startups is the seed funding. That early stage funding that helps the startups to get the idea off ground to prototype, to working product and commercialisation stage. Seed funding is very scarce in our society, despite the increased rates of ICT products and services springing up every now and then. What we are doing is to assist thriving incubators and accelerators with grants in bankrolling the cost of incubating or accelerating promising tech-driven startups to successful businesses.”    While speaking at a maiden edition of its special programme called StartUP Friday in Abuja, which hosted over hundred entrepreneurs from Abuja, Okunowo said that the programme was a component of its StartUP Café designed to bridge the gap by enriching the development processes of new tech-driven businesses through “meet-up”.
The “meet up”, he said, would connect the tech-startup with investors, mentors, technology buyers and enthusiasts in major tech clusters in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Enugu as well as Port-Harcourt, Ibadan and Ife.
The Special Adviser to the President on Job Creation and Youth Employment under the Office of the Vice President, Afolabi Imoukhuede, reiterated the focus of the government in facilitating the creation of jobs in some sectors, which included ICT, across the country.