President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the full implementation of Nigeria’s Digital Free Zones initiative, with a mandate to develop a roadmap for its launch within 180 days.
In a Statehouse press release issued on Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu said the initiative is designed to make it easier for Nigerian technology and service companies to raise global capital, employ Nigerians and build for international markets without moving their businesses and intellectual property abroad.
According to the statement, the President has directed the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, in her capacity as Vice-Chairman and Implementation Coordinator of the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones, to work with the Itana Innovation project and the Committee to deliver the roadmap.
President Tinubu chairs the Presidential Steering Committee, which was established to modernise Nigeria’s free zone framework for the digital economy.
“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,” Tinubu said.
“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.”
The President said the goal is for African technology, finance and service companies to be built, headquartered and scaled from Nigeria, creating opportunities for young Nigerians in Kano, Enugu, Warri, Minna, Maiduguri, Ibadan and other cities to work for global companies from home.
The initiative is already taking shape with Itana, Nigeria’s first Digital Free Zone licensed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA). The $500 million Itana Innovation project at Alaro City, Lagos, backed by the Africa Finance Corporation, will combine an enabling policy environment with an innovation campus, access to capital and ecosystem services.
The President said the administration’s ambition goes beyond technology parks, aiming for African companies to be incorporated, financed and governed from Nigeria while serving markets across Africa and the world.
The Presidential Steering Committee will continue work across regulation, taxation, banking, immigration, arbitration and digitisation of government processes within free zones, positioning Nigeria to benefit from the expansion of Africa’s digital economy and digitally enabled trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
