The Federal Government is moving to turn Nigeria’s Startup Act from a legal framework into practical funding, tax, export and regulatory benefits for startups, as it pushes more than 15 government institutions to work together on implementation.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said the success of the law would no longer be measured by its existence, but by how easily startups and investors can access the incentives it provides.
The agency made the call at the Nigerian Startup Act (NSA) Incentives Activation Co-Creation Session in Abuja, organised by NITDA’s subsidiary, the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI).
The push marks a shift in focus from designing the policy to delivering its benefits to businesses, particularly startups seeking capital, tax relief, regulatory support and access to export markets.
Speaking through Victoria Fabunmi, national coordinator of ONDI, NITDA director-general Kashifu Inuwa said the government must now move to the next level of implementation.
‘We want to be able to say that the actors in our ecosystem have been able to benefit significantly from the legislation that has been passed,’ Inuwa said.
He said this would require government agencies, private-sector players and other stakeholders to work together to remove institutional bottlenecks.
The Startup Act, signed into law on Oct. 19, 2022, was designed to create a more supportive environment for innovation, improve access to funding and strengthen collaboration between government and technology businesses. But the structure of the incentives makes implementation more complicated because they cut across several areas of government.
Elma Andah, acting lead, Strategy, Research and Analytics at ONDI, said the law contains more than 31 incentives spread across six broad categories.
They include tax and fiscal incentives, regulatory support, funding access, exports and trade, ecosystem development, and training and capacity building.
More than 15 government institutions are involved in delivering the incentives, making coordination a major test for the policy.
‘No single institution can deliver all these incentives alone. Implementation requires coordination across more than 15 MDAs,’ Andah said.
The government is now seeking clearer ownership of each incentive, simpler application procedures and stronger monitoring systems to ensure that eligible businesses can access the benefits.
The challenge is particularly important because several incentives are linked.
A startup seeking government funding may also need tax support. A company preparing to export may require regulatory approvals, while an investor seeking a tax credit could depend on the startup labelling system.
Without coordination, entrepreneurs could face the same bureaucratic barriers the law was intended to reduce.
NITDA said institutions responsible for trade, finance, communications, innovation, digital economy, science and technology must therefore align their policies and processes.
The agency also called for continuous engagement with startups and investors so that government can adjust implementation as the needs of the ecosystem change.
Nigeria’s startup ecosystem has expanded despite economic pressures, with more than 3,000 startups and several technology companies that have gained international recognition.
Nigerian startups attracted about $410 million in funding in 2024, according to figures presented at the session.
The government sees the Startup Act as a tool to deepen that investment pipeline and improve the ability of local companies to scale.
Some implementation structures are already in place. These include the Startup Consultative Forum and its governance framework, the digital startup support engagement portal, improved startup labelling timelines, the Startup Investment Seed Fund framework and efforts to operationalise a regulatory sandbox.
States are also being engaged on adopting the Startup Act, according to ONDI.
The next phase is to connect those structures with the incentives promised under the law.
For founders, the significance of the government’s latest push will depend less on new policy announcements and more on whether businesses can obtain tax relief, funding, regulatory support and export assistance without navigating multiple disconnected government systems.
NITDA said recommendations from the co-creation session would feed into efforts to strengthen the implementation framework.
The broader objective is to create a system in which government agencies act as parts of one startup-support network rather than separate institutions, allowing Nigerian businesses to grow faster, attract more investment and compete in global markets.