Nigeria is moving to activate the incentives provided under its Startup Act, nearly four years after the legislation was signed into law.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is calling for coordination among more than 15 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) responsible for delivering different parts of the law.
The agency made the call at the Nigeria Startup Act Incentives Activation Co-Creation Session in Abuja, organised by its Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI).
The push comes as the government faces a key test: turning incentives that have existed in legislation since 2022 into benefits that startups can actually access.
Four years on, the Startup Act is still waiting to deliver
Former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Nigeria Startup Act into law on October 19, 2022, with the aim of creating a more supportive environment for startups, improving access to funding and helping Nigerian technology companies grow.
The Act contains more than 31 incentives covering six broad areas: tax and fiscal support, regulatory assistance, funding, exports and trade, ecosystem development, and training and capacity building.
But implementing those incentives has taken longer than passing the law itself.
NITDA has already established structures to support implementation, including the Startup Consultative Forum and the digital startup portal. A Startup Labelling Committee was also inaugurated in 2024 to oversee applications and determine which businesses qualify for the official startup label.
By April 2024, NITDA said 12,948 startups had registered on the portal for labelling.
The latest move is therefore focused on what happens after the structures are created: making sure the incentives attached to the Act reach the businesses they were designed for.
Speaking on behalf of NITDA Director-General Kashifu Inuwa, ONDI National Coordinator Victoria Fabunmi said the government needs to move from policy design to operational delivery.
Also check out:Â https://techmedia.africa/africa/nigeria/how-to-apply-for-union-bank-2026-tech-bootcamp
NITDA brings 15 government agencies into the process
The difficulty is that the incentives do not belong to one government agency.
According to Elma Andah, Acting Lead for Strategy, Research and Analytics at ONDI, more than 15 government institutions are involved in implementing the different incentives under the Act.
Their responsibilities cut across areas including finance, taxation, trade, communications, innovation, the digital economy, science and technology.
For instance, tax incentives require the involvement of the Nigeria Revenue Service, while other benefits depend on agencies responsible for funding, regulation, trade and other parts of the economy.
This means that getting the full benefits of the Startup Act requires more than NITDA simply creating a portal or issuing startup labels.
NITDA wants the agencies to clarify who is responsible for each incentive, identify gaps in implementation and develop processes that make it easier for eligible startups to access the benefits.
The government is also looking at clearer ownership of the incentives, simpler application procedures and stronger monitoring of implementation.
For founders, the difference could be significant. Instead of having to navigate separate government institutions to find out what support is available, the aim is to create a system where the incentives provided under the law are easier to understand and access.
The bigger challenge facing Nigeria’s startup ecosystem
The push to activate the Startup Act comes at a time when Nigerian startups are still trying to raise capital and grow businesses in a difficult operating environment.
Nigerian startups attracted about $410 million in funding in 2024, according to figures presented at the NITDA session. While the figure shows that investors continue to put money into the ecosystem, access to funding remains uneven, particularly for early-stage companies.
The problem goes beyond raising venture capital. Startups also have to deal with taxes, regulation, infrastructure costs and the difficulty of expanding a young business into new markets.
This is where the incentives in the Startup Act are supposed to make a difference.
The law provides for measures including tax and fiscal incentives, access to a Startup Investment Seed Fund, regulatory support and assistance aimed at helping Nigerian startups compete and expand.
However, an incentive has little value to a founder if accessing it involves the same bureaucratic hurdles the Startup Act was intended to reduce.
That makes implementation the most important stage of the law now. Four years after its passage, Nigeria already has the legislation, the startup portal and the structures for implementation. The bigger question is whether the government can turn those pieces into support that founders can actually use.