This agreement was signed on the first day of the recently concluded Global Tech Africa conference,.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding in collaboration with an incubator Venture Garden Group (VGG) to set up the Nigerian start-up assistance and engagement platform.

This pact was signed on the first day of the recently finished Global Tech Africa (GTA) Conference, which was held in Lagos, Nigeria on November 17.

Bunmi Akinyemiju, co-founder of VGG, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general of NITDA, and Charles Odii, director general of Nigeria's Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency, attended the signing event.

Inuwa Abdullahi, NITDA's director-general, stated, "The portal will be the engine room for the implementation of the Nigerian Startup Act." We are currently signing an agreement with VGG in GTA to help usher in the Nigerian Startup support and engagement portal."

"We want to automate everything," he added. "That is where we require entrepreneurs to register, where you can communicate with all government agencies, and where you can connect with investors. It's a significant deal, and we want you to be a part of it and have other possibilities related to it."

"Government is doing this with a collaborative ecosystem approach, and that's what you're seeing today," Odii said. "I'm taking advantage of this chance to invite other technological partners to participate as well."

Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, stated that this development is a critical necessity for the execution of the Nigeria Startup Act.

"The startup portal will drive the identification and aggregation of Nigerian startups, venture capital firms, hubs, and innovation centres in order to facilitate engagement and support for ecosystem players," he explained.

"The launch of the portal will allow us to initiate the process of setting up the startup consultative forums to select representatives to the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, in order to facilitate discourse and consensus among Nigerian ecosystem players."