President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, September 17, moved Nigeria’s Digital Free Zones initiative to the implementation phase, targeting increased global investment, job creation and the retention of Nigerian technology companies and intellectual property in the country.
Tinubu also directed the minister of trade and investment, Jumoke Oduwole, to work with the Itana Innovation project and the presidential steering committee on digital free zones to develop a roadmap for the full launch of the initiative within 180 days.
According to a statement issued by the special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the initiative is aimed at making it easier for Nigerian technology and service companies to raise global capital, employ Nigerians and build for international markets without relocating their businesses and intellectual property abroad.
Tinubu said the initiative would also create opportunities for young Nigerians to work for global companies from within the country while expanding the domestic ecosystem of engineers, developers, designers, lawyers, accountants and other professionals supporting digital businesses.
“Nigeria has the talent, enterprise and ambition to build companies that can compete anywhere in the world.
Our responsibility as a government is to ensure that Nigerians do not have to leave Nigeria or rely on other jurisdictions to realise that potential,” he said.
The president said the federal government wanted more of the economic value created by Nigerian talent to remain in the country through jobs, investment, professional services, intellectual property and the growth of Nigerian businesses.
He said the government was seeking to modernise Nigeria’s free zone framework, which was established more than three decades ago, to meet the requirements of the digital economy.
Tinubu established and chairs the presidential steering committee on digital free zones as part of the initiative.
“For too long, some of our most promising young entrepreneurs have felt compelled to establish their companies and intellectual property abroad to access global capital and markets. I do not accept that this must remain the case,” Tinubu said.
“I want the next generation of African technology, finance and service companies to be built, headquartered and scaled to the world from Nigerian soil,” he added.
The statement said the initiative was already taking shape, with Itana, Nigeria’s first digital free zone, licensed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority to provide a platform for global and pan-African digital and service businesses to establish and operate from Nigeria.
The Africa Finance Corporation is backing the $500 million Itana Innovation project at Alaro City, Lagos.
The project is expected to combine an enabling policy environment with an innovation campus, access to capital and ecosystem services designed to help African startups scale and retain more of the value they create on the continent.
Tinubu said the administration’s ambition went beyond developing technology parks, stressing the need to establish Nigeria as a base for companies serving African and global markets.
He said founders should be able to raise capital globally while keeping their companies and intellectual property in Nigeria.
The presidential steering committee is expected to continue its work across regulation, taxation, banking, immigration, arbitration and the digitisation of government processes within Nigeria’s free zones.
Tinubu also said the initiative would position Nigeria to benefit from the expansion of Africa’s digital economy and digitally enabled trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“Nigeria has the talent and the market to reshape Africa’s place in the global technology and digital economy value chain,” he said.
The president said the initiative represented the administration’s approach to translating economic reforms into opportunities within the digital economy.
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