Flutterwave, Moove, ThriveAgric, Reliance Health, Bamboo and four other tech startups in the country raised $600million in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said.
Speaking during the IHatch Incubation Programme Cohort-1 demo day and Cohort-2 inauguration at the Civil Service Training Institute, Kubwa, Abuja, NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Abdullahi said such investments by the global community speak to the opportunities, innovative talents and the commitment of the regulatory body to digital economy policy of the country.
Abdullahi who commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami for their passion and commitment, said more funding are on the way for the startups given their dominance in Africa.
Abdullahi said: “Nigerian startups have continued to attract more investments than other countries on the continent, with a number of the startups raising about $600 million in Q1 of 2022.
“The top 10 startups that attracted the funding are Flutterwave ($250 million); Moove ($105 million); ThriveAgric ($56.4 million); Reliance Health ($40 million); Bamboo ($15 million); and Credpal ($15 million).
“Others are SeamlessHR ($10 million); DrugStoc ($4.4 million); Casava ($4 million) and Sudo Africa ($3.7 million). This clearly indicates the vast potentials that abound within Nigeria’s tech and innovation ecosystem.”
He said with over 3,300 startups in the country which was the highest as 2020, there would be opportunities for jobs and wealth creation for the youths with hope for speedy development for the larger economy.
Abdullahi said the programme which was a partnership between NITDA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had over 5,000 applicants and 1,163 applicants for the first and second cohorts respectively.
He explained that the eight finalists chosen by the panel for the two categories respectively were chosen after rigorous and painstaking processes, noting that those which startups were not registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) were made to register for them to continue.
“The selection process assessed the startups’ ideas based on the criteria of profitability, scalability, social impact, idea technique, competitive advantage, experience, and a clearly defined future roadmap.
“In the course of the programme, the startups benefited from free virtual and physical interactive lectures with experienced mentors, free workspace, mentorship meetings with tech professionals, pitch deck enhancement, and networking opportunities.
“In the course of the programme, four of the startups that were initially not legally registered, successfully registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) while work is in progress on the prototyping and Intellectual Property (IP) registration of their businesses,” he said.
Chief Representative of JICA in Nigeria, Mr Susumu Yuzurio said Japan is interested in the advancements of Nigeria’s digital economy sector given its potentials and the opportunities it would provide for the youths to be positively engaged and become wealth creators for the country.
