Harassing laptop-carrying youths gone with Startups Act — FG

The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that the signing into law of the Startups Act and other legal frame­work by the Muhammadu Buhari ad­ministration would go a long way in protecting youths in the innovative sector against harassment and other abuses by security personnel.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Panta­mi, gave this assurance while briefing State House correspondents on the Ni­geria Startups Act 2022, which Presi­dent Buhari accented to at the Pres­idential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.

Prof. Pantami also disclosed that the new Act will be establishing the National Digital Innovation and En­trepreneurship Council, which would be chaired by the president.

He explained that the new law was borne out of government’s desire to provide the required enabling envi­ronment for Nigerian young startups and innovators, to address the various challenges facing the sector, in­cluding those of intellectual property, financing, regulation and incentive.

The minister, who dis­closed that President Buhari, through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, and the Office of the Chief of Staff, broached the bill from the onset, added that government has earmarked a N10 billion startup funding for startups and innovators to draw from.

Speaking on how the new law would end the era of young people with laptops being ha­rassed by law enforcement agents, Pantami said rather than the minister lobbying to stop the Act, the president, who is the chairman of the Council only needs to give a directive and it will be obeyed by those who misrepresent them for internet fraudsters.

It would be recalled that many young Nigerians have complained about being ha­rassed by security personnel for bearing laptop comput­ers and branded internet fraudsters, a situation which, among other factors, ignited the bloody uprising tagged, ‘EndSARS protest’ against alleged police harassment in 2020.

“The main institution to address the issue is the Na­tional Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council to be chaired by Mr. President. Number one mandate of the Council is to listen to the challenges of our young in­novators and direct relevant institutions there and then to address the challenge. So, with that Council, I believe the issue will be resolved.

“At personal level as a min­ister, I have written many letters to EFCC to IG, to Min­ister of Police, they have been addressing the challenge, but not consistent. If they address it, because of their interven­tion, after a month or two, the issue will re-emerge, but if the president happens to be the chair of the Council, he cannot lobby the way I’ll lob­by, he can only direct and that is why the Council is critical to address that issue and any oth­er challenge that may come up in the future. When president directs, it must be implement­ed. And I believe the Council will do that”, the minister said.

Meanwhile, speaking on signing of the bill, the min­ister said, “Mr. President has assented to the bill, and also conveyed to the relevant in­stitutions of government for gazzeting today and we are all excited, knowing the benefits that our economy is going to generate from the bill.

“If I’m permitted to com­ment further on it, this bill is an Executive Bill, meaning the Federal Government of Nige­ria under President Muham­madu Buhari, initiated the bill through the collaboration of the Ministry of Communica­tions and Digital Economy, on one hand, and the Office of the Chief of Staff to Mr. President on the order.

“These two offices coordi­nated and established the foun­dation for the Nigeria Start-up Act, 2022 and the approach we adopted was to allow our young start-ups, our young in­novators all over the country, to identify the challenges they were being confronted with, when it comes to intellectual property, financing, regula­tion, incentive among many others. That is the organic ap­proach, meaning bottom-up approach.

“So, young innovators who are engaged in each and every geopolitical zone of Nigeria, where we engaged them to voice out their chal­lenges when it comes to en­abling environment for busi­ness. From their input, we discovered there was a need to have Nigeria Start-up Act in place so that the Act will provide the enabling environ­ment for them to continue to thrive and be successful”, he explained.

Talking about the Invest­ment Fund for the start-up innovators and investors, Pantami said “the minimum amount to be made available, the minimum at the start based on the provision of the law is N10 billion. However, in the bill, there is a provision that Bank of Industry, Central Bank of Nigeria, National In­formation Technology Devel­opment Fund, among many others, can also be accommo­dated.”

He said in recognition of the efforts of the Nigerian gov­ernment in the Information Communication Technology (ICT), Microsoft has decided to train about five million Nige­rians on high demands skills geared towards job creation.

Speaking on the GiTex event he just attended, he ex­plained: “There were many participants from Europe, Asia and from all the devel­oped countries and we defeat­ed them, and they (innovators) came from Nigeria, this is a successful story.

“Secondly, some of the young individuals we took from Nigeria, Federal Gov­ernment sponsored eight of them. Then the organizers also sponsored four, and Lagos State government sponsored 15. Among some of them that I met, the first day of the event, a company signed an MoU with them to invest $20 million in that startup.

“Thirdly, it is there during the event that we concluded our discussion with Microsoft that they will come to Nigeria and train 5 million citizens on high demand and cutting edge skill in the digital sector. Five million Nigerians and this is one of their corporate social responsibilities.

“Even today, before I came here, I signed a letter conveyed to Microsoft the proposed date for the commencement of the training. So for you to get that opportunity for 5 million Nige­rians to train.

“I know those basic digital skills are in high demand. They partook in an investiga­tion evaluation, they discov­ered areas where there were opportunities globally. So, the forecast where there is job be­fore that, our citizens will be trained in this area. These are only few of the major achieve­ments in addition to many more.

“At the international level, our modest effort in Nigeria in the digital economy sector was appreciated. I had a parlia­ment with the ministers and other high government offi­cials all over the world. I was called upon and I was present­ed an award without any prior knowledge about it. And there and then, they commended the effort of Nigeria in the digital economic sector”, he said.

Noting the remarkable con­tribution of the digital sector to the economy, Pantami ob­served that Nigeria is blessed with young innovators that are making the nation proud.

He added: “With the govern­ment policies we have in place, before assenting to the bill to­day, a lot has been achieved when it comes to providing the enabling environment for our young innovators.”