Niger governor-elect targets ICT opportunities to boost state economy

Niger governor-elect Mohammed Bago has pledged to leverage opportunities in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector to boost small businesses in the state.

This is contained in a statement issued on Saturday in Abuja by Mr Mustapha Ndajiwo, a member of the Niger State Transition Council Committee.

Bago made this known at the opening of Labspace, a new technology innovation hub.

According to Bago, private enterprises alongside institutional government support was an integral part of sub-regional economic development.

Bago, who was represented by Ndajiwo at the event, expressed his interest in the ICT sector against the backdrop that the sector contributed N21.15 trillion to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022.

“The incoming government has identified baseline challenges that startups face and we are making plans to create a conducive ecosystem that will enable startups and businesses to strive.

“These include infrastructural upgrade and access, business-friendly regulations and mediating between businesses and agencies and attracting right investors to aid the growth of the state’s economy,” he said.

Mr Abdulkadir Lapai, Founder of Labspace said that the idea behind the initiative was to provide a conducive environment to boost innovation and creativity among youths and promote women inclusion and participation in ICT.

He expressed Labspace Hub’s readiness to unite all ICT initiatives in the state towards creating a platform for them to work and connect.

The panel discussion on “The Future of Tech in Northern Nigeria” during the event, identified some of the challenges startups and founders face in the region.

Some of the challenges identified by the panellists include; negative perception of the startup business model, lack of adoption of tech to enable small and medium scale businesses to scale faster.

Others are the absence of venture capital funding and investments which are all elements of the weak Northern Nigeria startup ecosystem.

Lapai said that the hub’s activities shall include community festivals, ideation training of entrepreneurs on how to use tech to grow businesses, virtual programs and social media interactions through social media communities.

“All of these would help to create supportive communities for founders and track startups growth,” he said.

Participating startups include Dairy of Hackers, a cyber security community focused on cyber protection and Bridgepay, a payment platform that enables cross border payment for goods and services in other currencies.

Others are Cendam, a platform that integrates logistic companies, serves mediation roles between users and companies, track goods, and does a last mile delivery.