Nigeria eyes $5b yearly from startup funding by 2027 — Technology — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News

The Federal Government said it is working to ensure that yearly capital inflow into Nigerian startup space increases from $1 billion to $5 billion by 2027. The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, who stated this during an interview, said this has become important to further guarantee the competitiveness of Nigeria’s startup community.

 
Tijani said the ministry was working with the startup ecosystem to ensure that this is achievable.
  
The minister recalled that about 15 years ago, Nigeria was not listed among the destinations for investments in technology startups, but that today it is between number one and three top tech startup destinations.
  
Tijani said companies like Paystack, Flutterwave, and LemFi among others are doing well in that space, noting that lots of these companies, most of their funding is from the fourth largest economy of the world, which is the San Francisco Bay area in the United States.
  
“So, 90 per cent of the funding that comes into Nigeria comes from there. To raise money, some of these companies join one or two programmes, such as the Accelerator programme and there is a limit to what these companies can take because of other startups coming in. But we want to do everything possible to scale the funding. So many things are in the pipeline and the target is that by 2027, we want inflow to Nigerian startups to go from $1 billion to $5 billion yearly,” he stated.
   
Amid Nigeria’s target, Africa:The Big Deal in a report, noted that behind each of the over 430 start-ups in Africa that raised at least $100, 000 in 2024 is an investor – more often than not, multiple investors – providing the much-needed capital to finance their growth.
  
It said last year, it found over 520 investors involved in at least one $100, 000 deal on the continent (exc. grants and exits), saying this is a large community of investors supporting the ecosystem, but not as large as it used to be, compared to 2023 (610+), or to 2022 when over 1,000 investors had participated in at least one deal, twice as much as in 2024.
  
According to Africa: The Big Deal, the most active investor last year – and the only one investor to take part in more than 20 $100,000 deals – was 54 Collective (previously Founders Factory Africa) with 26 deals i.e. more than two deals a month on average (!). Another two investors had already made the list in 2023, 2022 and 2021: Techstars and Launch Africa.
  
Meanwhile, Nigeria has launched the Technology Export and Digital Trade Desk aimed at attracting more investments into the Nigerian tech sector and pushing yearly funding for the country’s startups up to $5 billion. Tijani, who announced this, said the initiative was launched in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
  
According to him, this marked a significant milestone in the Ministry’s efforts to strengthen the contribution of ICT to Nigeria’s Economy.  Tijani noted that trade, which is the 5th Pillar of the Ministry’s strategic blueprint, represents an opportunity to promote Nigerian technology export and the launch of the Trade Desk provides a strong foundation to offer bespoke support to local technology companies, enabling them to access and compete in markets across Africa and around the world.

“With a bold vision, the initiative seeks to increase the technology sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP from current 14–18 per cent to 21 per cent within the next three years.

“Additionally, the Desk aims to amplify yearly funding for Nigerian startups, scaling up from $1 billion to $5 billion over the same period, thereby fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and global competitiveness,” he said.

  
The Minister added that the establishment of the Trade Desk, which would provide a comprehensive suite of programmes, partnerships, and policy-driven interventions, also aligns with Nigeria’s ambition to improve its position in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI), showcasing the country’s commitment to diversifying its trade and advancing its position in the global digital economy.
  
The ECI is a ranking system that assesses a country’s productive knowledge and the complexity and diversity of its exports.
Countries with a high ECI have a range of specialized capabilities and can produce a wide variety of complex products.
  
Nigeria’s ECI in 2022 was -1.67, placing it in 127th rank out of 133 countries. Tijani said the efforts also form a critical component of President Bola Tinubu’s overarching goal of achieving a $1 trillion Nigerian economy, underpinned by innovation, investment, and international trade.
  
It should be noted that Nigeria was once the leading destination for startup funding. It, however, slipped to the second position in 2023 as Kenya overtook the country as the top destination for startup funding.

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