Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said no fewer than six
startups owned by young Nigerians have grown from scratch to billion dollar
businesses in recent years.
Osinbajo was the Special Guest of Honour at the Graduation
Ceremony of Senior Executive Course 43, 2021 of the National Institute for
Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos.
He said that as at 2021, more than six of such companies had
been named Unicorns– a company that is worth over a billion dollars.
Osinbajo attributed the feat of the startups to providence
and good policies.
“Six of those companies started between 2016 in the middle
of two recessions and global health crisis.
“The companies are: Opay, Paystack, Flutterwave, Andela,
PiggyVest and Jumia.
“ Paystack and Flutterwave. Paystack was co-founded in 2016
by two graduates of Babcock University, in their twenties.
“ Paystack is a payment processing company; I am sure many
have heard that it was eventually bought over by Stripe, the American
multinational; it is now estimated to be worth a billion dollars.
“Flutterwave, also a payment processing coy founded in 2016;
Flutterwave in Lagos; it is now worth nearly three billion dollars and both
companies employ hundreds of young men and women.’’
He said that PiggyVest was co- founded in 2016 by
ex-students of Covenant University led by 21-year-old lady.
According to him, PiggyVest is a wealth management platform
that at the end of 2019, had helped one million users save about 80 million
dollars.
“What is responsible for some of these successes? Providence
and good policies.
“Providence because COVID-19 was a boom period for online
payment systems.
“Policy because the president approved the establishment of
a technology and creativity advisory group that helped to formulate new banking
policies to accommodate new tech enabled payment systems, such that these tech
companies could process payments without being full scale banks.
“ The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was then able to issue
new types of licences for payment processing; the Federal Government has
established a N75 billion National Youth Investment Fund.
This provides financial support for small businesses in any
field.’’
The vice president said that CBN had also established a
Creative Sector Fund for young people in entertainment or technology.
He said there was the new programme called Investing in
Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme.
According to Osinbajo, iDICE is an over 600 million dollars
programme that will support young tech and creative sector entrepreneurs through
the provision of finance, skills development and infrastructure.
“Earlier this year, the federal government partnered with
the UNDP and the private sector to start a programme called the Jubilee Fellows
internship programme.
“ For the next five years every year 20,000 students after
youth service will be given internship opportunities in private sector
companies and in public agencies.
“The idea will be for the participants to gain relevant
career and life skills that will enable them transition seamlessly into
professional, business or public sector careers, while also earning very good
pay during the internship.
“These snapshots of possibility are enough to show us that
we are not facing an uncertain future without any tools at our disposal.’’
The vice president said, however, that if Nigeria was to
inaugurate a new age of accelerated growth, it must adopt a new strategic
direction and policy orientation.
Osinbajo said that adoption of a new strategy was what the
Federal Government sought to do through the National Development Plan 2021-2025
which was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council.
“In terms of strategic direction, the cornerstone of our
strategy is boosting productivity by focusing on value addition as the guiding
principle for all sectors, especially agriculture, manufacturing, solid
minerals, digital services, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment.
“In agriculture, for example, just as we seek to increase
production of rice, we are paying equal attention to other parts of the value
chain such as storage, transportation, processing and marketing,’’ he said.
He said the Course 43 was graduating at probably the most
consequential period in Nigeria’s history – a time of immense challenges but
even more enormous opportunities.
Osinbajo urged graduands to promote Nigeria’s unity as their
seminal policy work showed what could be done where the best Nigerian minds
regardless of ethnicity or religion work together for the good the nation and
its peoples.
In his address, the acting Director General of NIPSS,
Brig.-Gen. Chukwuemeka Udaya(retired), said that the institute was established
in 1979 to serve as a high level centre of reflection, research and dialogue.
He commended the vice president for always availing himself
for matters and activities that pertained to the institute despite his tight
schedule.
The high points of the event were the presentation of
certificates to the 85 graduands by the vice president and induction of the
graduands into the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI) by the
AANI executive.
The vice president also had an interaction with the AANI and
inaugurated projects at the institute.
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