The federal executive council (FEC) has approved plans to convert an existing property of the federal government in San Francisco, United States, to a Nigerian Digital Technology Exchange Programme Hub also known as Nigeria Startup House.
Bosun Tijani, minister of communication, innovation and
digital economy, disclosed this in a statement on X on Tuesday.
Tijani said the ministry secured two approvals that offer
significant opportunities for Nigerians in general.
He said while the first approval is on the establishment of
a startup hub in the US, the other is on the provision of an additional 90,000
kilometres (km) of fibre optic cable to complement the existing connectivity
infrastructure.
Speaking about the startup house, the minister said the development would go a
long way in attracting foreign direct investments to the country.
“As we work towards achieving key elements of our Trade and
IEC strategic blueprint pillars, the Nigerian Startup House will play a
critical role in promoting Nigeria’s economic interest, attracting foreign
direct investment and improving the visibility and positioning of Nigeria’s
startup ecosystem to attract funding and expertise from global markets and
organisations represented in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond,” he said.
“The San Francisco Bay Area, and nearby Silicon Valley, is
recognised globally as a major source of startup ecosystem funding, with a
combined GDP value of just over $929 billion and is home to over 200 of the
largest companies in the world by revenue.
“In addition, most of
the $1.3 billion funding sourced by Nigerian technology startups in 2023 alone
came from Venture Capital funds in the Bay Area.”
Tijani said while the ownership of the Nigeria Startup House
will remain with the federal government, it would be managed by a consortium of
Nigerian digital technology companies who will provide non-public funding for
the operations of the startup house.
PROVISION OF 90,000KM
FIBRE OPTIC CABLE
On the fibre optic cable, Tijani said FEC approved the
launch of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will support the delivery of an
additional 90,000km of fibre optic cable.
He said the cables will complement Nigeria’s existing
connectivity infrastructure and deliver a stronger national backbone for
universal access to the internet across Nigeria.
“Over the last few months, we have put in extensive
groundwork to set up this SPV which will be modelled in governance and
operations similarly to some of the best public-private partnership setups in
Nigeria, such as NIBSS and NLNG,” the minister said.
“Working with partners and stakeholders from the government
and private sector, this SPV will build the additional fibre optic coverage
required to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km,
from the current coverage of about 35,000km.
“Upon delivery, this will become Africa’s 3rd longest
terrestrial fibre optic backbone, after Egypt and South Africa.”
The minister also said the provision of fibre optics will
enable the country to optimise the unique benefit of having eight submarine
cables and drive an uptake of the data capacity that the cables offer, beyond
the current usage level of 10 percent.
This, he said, would lead to increased connectivity and help
plug the current non-consumption gap by connecting over 200,000 educational,
healthcare and social institutions across Nigeria, ensuring that a larger
section of the society can be included in the benefits of internet
connectivity.
“Some of these
immediate benefits include; Increasing internet penetration in Nigeria to over
70%, potential reduction of the cost of access to internet by over 60%,
inclusion of at least 50% of the 33 million Nigerians currently excluded from
access to the internet,” he added.
Tijani said the optic cables would help deliver up to 1.5
percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth per capita and
raise the GDP from $472.6 billion (2022) to $502 billion over the next four
years.
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