Nigeria has secured fresh backing for its innovation ecosystem as the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, advanced strategic collaborations with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Tokyo during the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9).
Talks focused on the $11.2 million Abuja Startup Hub, set to serve as a centre of excellence for entrepreneurship, and JICA’s $20 million early-stage technology startup fund, which will be matched with another $20 million from the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) under the Nigeria Startup Act.
The initiatives are designed to provide early-stage startups with funding, infrastructure, and mentorship to scale, create jobs, and drive Nigeria’s digital economic transformation.
Abdullahi commended JICA for its continued support and reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to partnerships that empower young innovators.
In another engagement, the NITDA boss met with Satoshi Shimoda, Senior Writer at Nikkei, where discussions spotlighted Nigeria’s youth-driven innovation landscape and recent policy reforms. He also visited the Tokyo Innovation Base to explore opportunities for knowledge transfer and startup collaborations between Nigeria and Japan.
