5 THINGS ATIKU PROMISED TO DO FOR START-UPS AND TECHIES

Technology has been shown to be the one of the most vital tools for economic development of any nation.

In todays world, there is hardly any developed nation that doesn’t owe its development to technology.

According to a story reported by Legit.ng, Atiku and his campaign team recently took their campaigns to Ozone Cinema Yaba. During the event Atiku stated, “my vision of the Nigeria tech ecosystem, is an industry that will of course be private sector-driven, with massive government support in the form of hubs with supersonic internet speed, 24/7 electricity and other infrastructures”.

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Here are a few things he promised to do as seen from his policy document (Atikus-Plan) ;

1 “Implement a four-year plan for the digitization of major government operations such as procurement to achieve transparency and reduce leakages.”

In my view, this is one of the most interesting promises on the “Atiku Plan”. This is because of how important Tech can be in the fight against corruption.

It is obvious that this plan may have been partially or fully implemented in some government operations such as TSA {Vis-à-vis the Remita platform} it is also imperative that other government operations be digitized as well.

According to Atiku, minimizing human contact in government agencies is a very good way to fight corruption. One would hope that digitizing the voting process in INEC organized elections would be part of this plan. Professionals believe that electronic voting would greatly increase the credibility of our elections while increasing voter participation in our elections. See also Chinese engineer charged with stealing secret material from apple

2. Strengthen the use of business intelligence software to analyse public.
For Techies, this would likely open up new opportunities.

Programmers, developers and IT specialists would be greatly employed (in no small numbers) to make this happen

3. Atiku also promised that his administration will work towards the speedy passage of the National Research and Innovation Fund Bill, in order to facilitate the provision of stable and sustainable long-term support to aspiring entrepreneurs in building solid business models in the new economy — especially in ICT and the green economy.

When passed, he intends that the Fund will receive funding from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s MSME Fund, Development Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Industry and other private sector institutions and donor agencies.

It is expected that at least 100,000 budding entrepreneurs will be added annually. That is to say that He intends to support at least 100,000 entrepreneurs every year.

4. Atiku also promised to provide an enterprise start-up training program to be delivered by Small and Medium Enterprises Development (SMEDAN) to the graduates of technical and vocational training centers who opt for self-employment.  

Upon completion of the training, participants will submit business plan to Micro Finance Banks and apply for loans from Bank of Industry, which will be supported by a start-up grant from the National Innovation Fund.

Graduates of the technical colleges will receive loan and Business Development Service coaching and support from SMEDAN/ Business Development Service Providers.

On successful repayment of loan graduates will receive a final grant (matched to value of original loan value) to boost their businesses.

5. Enforce and protect intellectual property rights, known to be indispensable for technological innovation.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us on these promises.