E-Business
Nigeria Startup Bill Poised To Unlock Digital Potential
Nigeria has moved a step closer to rolling out its landmark Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB) that will further deepen the country’s technology ecosystem and enable a sector on the cusp of exponential growth.
The Presidency and leaders of the Nigerian technology industry have worked on the bill which has now been approved by the Federal Executive Council and is being sent to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Federal Executive Council approved the bill on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. The Bill will ensure regulatory support as Nigeria continues to attract hundreds of millions of dollars of international investment.
The NSB will create an enabling environment for Nigerian startups to thrive, and the legislation addresses challenges such as disruptive regulation, weak infrastructure and difficulties accessing capital, particularly for non-fintech businesses.
The Bill has come about through a Big Tent Approach – close collaboration between the Presidency, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the Nigerian Export and Promotion Council and wider government bodies with almost 300 volunteers and private sector players participating, notably venture capital investors Future Africa and Ventures Platform, legal firms TLP Advisory and Aelex, policy advisors Advocacy for Policy And Innovation (API) and Innovation for Policy Foundation, and media organisations TechCabal and Wimbart. Google Nigeria and the UK-Government, through the West Africa Research and Innovation Hub and the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, are also backing the bill.
Praising the Big Tent Approach, Adaeze Sokan, Country Director at the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub said “the inclusive and collaborative process is laudable and can serve as a framework for policy formulation in the country.”
The NSB aims to provide a platform where startups can continuously engage regulators. Its key objectives include regulatory certainty, local content and providing an enabling business environment.
There will be more support for local angel investors, funds and incubators, alongside national co-investment schemes and incentives for investing in early stage startups.
In addition, policy designed to reduce currency constraints will have broad reaching impacts on the ability for startups to raise and expand internationally. In terms of infrastructure, the Bill will lead to tech parks, subsidised local data facilities, better broadband connectivity and open-source data.
Despite having the highest number of startups on the continent, currently estimated at 750, Nigeria ranks below countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Tunisia in terms of business friendliness.
While Kenya and Tunisia have passed their Startup Bills into law and South Africa are in the process of passing theirs, the results of boosting business friendliness will be significant.
With an already flourishing, world renowned tech ecosystem in place, a more robust macro environment will enable Nigerian startups to further their missions, power the economy, create more good jobs and propel the country’s development in a globally competitive context.
In just two decades Nigeria has fostered two indigenous unicorns [companies valued at over $1Bn], despite the country’s infrastructure and regulation not keeping up with the pace of disruption by the tech sector.
Nigeria has also served as the key market for five of the continent’s unicorns (Interswitch, Andela, Jumia, OPay and Flutterwave) and is the giant of African tech in terms of the country’s ability to attract investment.
Between 2016 and 2020 Nigerian startups were the most funded on the continent, raising $1.58 billion in venture capital and representing 27% of the overall deal volume, closely followed by Kenya. The NSB is expected to accelerate this progress and lead to many more Nigerian unicorns in years to come.
“The NSB is one among a series of key activities the Presidency is using to drive the building of a more sustainable ecosystem for young people in Nigeria to thrive and scale,” said Oswald Osaretin Guobadia, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital Transformation and the NSB Lead.
Securing jobs for Nigeria’s youthful population is a key challenge for the government, and the NSB is aimed directly at fostering new talent in the growing technology and start-ups sectors.
By providing for regulation around startup registration, tax incentives, talent development, university-industry collaboration, and increased public tech procurement, the NSB will ease barriers to entrepreneurship and innovation.
Kola Aina, Founder and General Partner of Ventures Platform Fund, added, “the bill is being proposed to provide an enabling environment for the growth of startups and guard against different challenges faced by startups such as seemingly disruptive regulations, lack of regulatory certainty and weak infrastructure like broadband, open data, and digital platforms that limit the optimization of the many benefits of the digital economy.”
The Bill serves as common ground for the tech community and regulators, enabling founders to build with more confidence while providing regulators with the tools to ensure that consumers are adequately protected. This will, in turn, benefit the Nigerian economy at large and appease stakeholders involved in animosity in recent times.
Microsoft is planning to unveil its new Maia 300 AI chip this fall, potentially as soon as next month, The Information reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.
The company introduced its Maia AI chip in November 2023 but has lagged rivals such as Alphabet and Amazon in scaling up its in-house chip efforts as it seeks to reduce its reliance on Nvidia’s costly processors.
Google began recognizing revenue from direct sales of its custom AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units, in the quarter ended June, while Amazon has also seen growing adoption of its processors, including its Trainium chips.
Microsoft has been in talks with chipmaker TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for more than 300,000 units of the chip for delivery in 2027, according to the report. It is also looking to significantly ramp up production and persuade major cloud customers such as Anthropic to adopt the chip.
Microsoft ultimately aims to secure capacity for more than 1 million Maia 300 chips, though component supplies and ongoing capacity negotiations with TSMC could constrain its plans, according to the report.
It unveiled its second-generation Maia 200 in January, built by TSMC using 3-nanometer technology.
Microsoft packed the chip with a significant amount of SRAM, a type of memory that can provide speed advantages for AI systems handling large numbers of user requests.
X has announced plans to discontinue its Revenue Sharing programme and introduce a new Original Content Rewards programme to reward creators for producing original content on the platform.
The social media company announced the changes at the weekend in a post on its X Creators handle, saying the new programme would reward creators who contribute original content.
“Today, we’re introducing the Original Content Rewards Program, a new way to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X,” the company said.
X said it would stop accepting new enrolments into the Revenue Sharing programme from Friday, while existing participants would continue earning until September 7, 2026.
“Starting today, we’re no longer accepting new enrollments into Revenue Sharing,” it said.
According to the company, existing Revenue Sharing participants will receive three final payouts, with two scheduled for August 14 and August 28, while the final payment for earnings accrued through September 7 is expected around September 11.
X said existing Revenue Sharing participants would begin getting access to apply for the new programme from September 8, subject to meeting its eligibility requirements.
The first payout under the Original Content Rewards programme will be made on August 28, 2026, while existing Revenue Sharing creators who enrol in the new programme from September 8 will receive their first payment on September 25.
Under the new programme, eligible creators will earn from qualified impressions generated by their original content, with payments made every two weeks.
X defined qualified impressions as unique impressions from Premium users on the Home Timeline feed, where at least 50 per cent of a post is visible.
On the other hand, “The following are excluded from qualified impressions: impressions from the same account counted more than once per post; paid, promoted, or artificially generated impressions; and fraudulent impressions,” it said.
To qualify, creators must be at least 18 years old, live in a country where the programme is available, maintain an account in good standing and have either a personal or vusiness account.
They must also subscribe to X Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business, have at least 500 verified followers and record at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within the previous 90 days.
X said creators must also regularly post original content to remain eligible.
“We want to recognize creators who break news, share expertise, tell stories, create entertainment, and contribute meaningful perspectives to the conversation,” the company said.
The platform said original content could include threads, videos, memes, graphics, illustrations, reporting, analysis, commentary and reactions that add meaningful value to existing conversations.
It said creators who use content produced by others would need to add meaningful commentary, context, analysis, humour or creative transformation for such posts to qualify.
“Building on existing conversations is a core part of X, but simply reposting someone else’s content is not enough,” it said.
X said minor edits such as cropping, filters, borders, watermarks, speed adjustments or simple text overlays would generally not qualify as meaningful transformation on their own.
It also warned that content copied or substantially reproduced from another creator, content downloaded and re-uploaded from X or another platform without being the original author’s, automated content, disinformation and misleading content would be ineligible.
The company said accounts that violate the programme’s requirements could be temporarily or permanently removed from it, depending on the severity of the violation.
It added that creators would be responsible for ensuring they had the necessary rights, permissions or licences to use content created by others.
“Original content is content you personally create that reflects your own voice, perspective, expertise, or creativity,” X said.
The company said the new programme was intended to reward creators who make the platform more valuable by bringing original ideas and perspectives to its conversations.
“The Original Content Rewards Program is designed to reward the creators who start them, shape them, and move them forward,” it said.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has introduced so-called Nigeria’s Certified Cloud Register, regulatory framework developed under the agency’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative to determine which cloud providers are authorized to handle sensitive data, such as banking records.
In effect, from October, NITDA requires banks, fintech companies and other regulated organisations to source cloud infrastructure providers from a national register of certified firms approved to host sensitive financial and government data.
The Certified Cloud Register, is expected to strengthen data sovereignty, improve regulatory oversight and support the implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) data localisation policy, which takes effect on January 1, 2027.
Under the framework, banks, fintechs, government institutions and other regulated entities will be able to verify whether cloud service providers, data centre operators, managed service providers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure companies have met NITDA’s certification requirements before entrusting them with critical digital workloads.
The initiative is expected to provide regulated institutions with a standardised process for selecting cloud infrastructure providers that satisfy Nigeria’s technical, security and regulatory requirements.
According to NITDA, the framework establishes “a common national standard, an independent assessment process and a public register of approved providers that banks, fintechs and government institutions can rely on when selecting cloud infrastructure partners.”
The register is expected to become a key compliance tool ahead of the CBN’s directive, which requires all payment transaction data generated within Nigeria to be stored and processed locally, effective from January 1, 2027.
The policy applies to deposit money banks, microfinance banks, mobile money operators, payment service providers, switching companies and other financial institutions.
The certification regime is also expected to reshape Nigeria’s cloud computing ecosystem, making regulatory approval a major requirement for cloud providers seeking to handle sensitive data for regulated industries.
Figures cited by NITDA showed that Nigeria’s 10 largest banks spent about N177.91 billion on information technology in the first quarter of 2026, representing a 31 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.
A sizeable portion of the investment currently supports cloud infrastructure hosted outside Nigeria, a trend the new certification framework is expected to address by encouraging greater utilisation of compliant local infrastructure.
NITDA said the certification programme will apply the same technical and regulatory standards to indigenous cloud providers and international hyperscale operators, creating a level playing field for all companies seeking to provide cloud services to regulated sectors.
The agency also disclosed that more than 85 per cent of Nigerian businesses currently rely on cloud services, with the majority using infrastructure hosted outside the country.
It said the new framework is aimed at improving confidence in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure while promoting local capacity and enhancing oversight of critical national data.
Speaking on the objective of the initiative, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director-general of NITDA, said the programme is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s position in the global digital economy rather than exclude foreign technology companies.
According to him, the initiative is intended “to redefine the terms under which Nigeria participates in the global digital economy rather than isolate the country from international technology providers.”
The Certified Cloud Register forms part of broader efforts by the Federal Government to deepen digital trust, strengthen cybersecurity and ensure that critical financial and public sector data are managed in line with Nigeria’s evolving data governance and sovereignty objectives.
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