PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB), which was recently passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly.
One of the major objectives of the bill is to bridge the engagement gap between startups and regulators and ensure that regulations that harm Nigeria’s tech ecosystem are shut down.
The bill was created by the Federal Government, in collaboration with 30 tech leaders including Ventures Platform founder, Kola Aina and Future Africa founder, Iyin Aboyeji, and the Minister of Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
Pantami confirmed that the bill has now been signed into law via a tweet on his official handle on Wednesday.
“His Excellency, @MBuhari has just assented to Nigeria Startup Bill. It has now become Nigeria Startup Act, 2022. It was an Executive Bill, initiated by both Office of the Chief of Staff & the Office of the Minister of Comms & Digital Economy. Congratulations to all!”
BREAKING!
His Excellency, @MBuhari has just assented to Nigeria Start-up Bill. It has now become Nigeria Start-Up Act, 2022. It was an Executive Bill, initiated by both Office of the Chief of Staff & the Office of the Minister of Comms & Digital Economy. Congratulations to all!— Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (@ProfIsaPantami) October 19, 2022
The new law provides that: a startup’s headquarters and its place of incorporation should both be in Nigeria; to qualify as a startup in the NSB the company must have been operating in Nigeria for no longer than 10 years; an NSB startup must have at least 51 per cent of its shares held by Nigerians and at least 15 per cent of expenses going into research and development; and the employees of the NSB startup should not exceed 100, excluding contract workers, consultants, and outsourced personnel.
The Nigerian Startup Bill was initiated in 2021 and passed through both the House of Representatives and the Senate before it was signed into law by the President.
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