The Nigeria Startup Act, which is aimed at deepening the country’s technology ecosystem and enabling the sector, has been signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Initiated last May by the Nigerian presidency and a coalition of Nigerian technology industry leaders, the aim of the Nigeria Startup Act is to lay out rules and systems for how startups and governmental and regulatory bodies collaborate in order to advance the country’s growing tech ecosystem.
What was until recently known as the Nigeria Startup Bill was approved by the Federal Executive Council in December, and passed by the Senate in July. Its passing into law as the Nigeria Startup Act was announced in a tweet by Prof. Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s minister of communications and digital economy.
The aim of the new law is to help position Nigeria’s startup ecosystem as the leading one in Africa. The full bill is available to the public here, while a summary can be found here.
The first specific startup law globally was passed in Italy in 2012, and Tunisia and Senegal were the first two African countries to enact them. A host of countries, including Mali, Ghana, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Kenya, are at varying stages of enactment.
