Startup Act will generate massive job opportunities, Ondo govt tells youths

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The Ondo State Government has said the domestication of the Startup Act 2022 would generate massive employment opportunities and jobs for Nigerian youths, just as it will enable youths to access funds from local and international supporters and entrepreneurs.

Speaking during a sensitisation programme ahead of domesticating the act among tech business owners in the state, the Chairman of Ondo State Information Technology Agency (SITA), Olumbe Akinkugbe, said apart from reducing employment, the Act will also provide innovation hubs, startup fund, technology parks, and other support structures that will help startups thrive in the Nigerian economy.

Akinkugbe disclosed that the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has been giving priority to the development of young entrepreneurs, stressing the need for every young people to learn about the Startup Act.

He explained that the Act would contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for the growth, attraction and protection of investment in tech startups across the 18 Local government areas of the state.

Akinkugbe said, “There is no doubt that it is going to have impact extremely well on the communities and Ondo state as a state in all. We have already taken certain initiatives towards encouraging entrepreneurs within the state.

“Now what this one will do is to create formal such of arrangement and institutionalize the issue of technology growths among our entrepreneurs in the state.

“We hope that the Ondo state House of Assembly will be able to give positive feedback as to the timeline after this engagement. Besides, it would also help people to sect up a business in the state.”

Also speaking, State Adoption Lead of the Nigeria Startup Act, Mrs Trace Okoro Isaac, said, “is to create an enabling environment for tech companies to thrive and this because we understand that the entrepreneurs are the ones that will provide economic prosperity for the nation.

“The Ondo State ecosystem engagement is the one among the series of our state engagement that we have been doing since we started our ecosystem engagement and the idea behind it is that the state adoption secretariat understands that we run a federal system of government and since October 2022 when the President signed the Act.

“The implementation and process have started but until the state adopts the Startup Act they would not be able to fully enjoy the benefit of technology ways that have been coming into the country.

“So, we are here to speak about the Act and make an argument why the state should work with us, that at the end of the day, tech companies in Ondo state are able to support and find solutions to the economic prosperity in Ondo state.

“It is a law that at the end of the day we want it to be passed into law, which we believe that technology companies in Ondo state will now have the backing to access things like funding, and digital training for them to be able to compete with their mate all over the country.

“We have gathered people from different government sectors and organisations for this important purpose because we need their support and collaboration and once we finished this engagement we will work straight with the Attorney-General of the state to produce the draft bill that this ecosystem be passed into the law.”

It will be recalled that the Nigerian Startup Act, also known as the Nigerian Innovation and Entrepreneurship Act, was recently passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 19th of October, 2022.

The law aims to support and promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Nigeria, particularly addressing youth unemployment.

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