This is how Osinbajo is including online payments, shopping in government

folarin okunola

May 31, 2017 2:58 PM

This shows where the government’s head is at in terms of the areas it is looking to rapidly industrialise or attract foreign investment.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo and President Muhammadu Buhari

Yesterday, acting president Yemi Osinbajo inaugurated something called the “Nigerian Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council” to come up with policies that will make Nigeria’s industrialization bid all the more effective.

This Council is an interesting prospect because it shows where the government’s head is at in terms of the areas it is looking to rapidly industrialise or attract foreign investment. Members of the council cut across the public and private sectors.

Even more interesting is the inclusion of Flutterwave founder (and Andela co-founder) Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, JumiaNigeria CEO Juliet Anamah, and Swift MD/CEO Charles Anudu.

The inclusion of these people on the NIPCAC shows that the federal government is aware of the areas of Nigeria’s tech industry that has grown the most [and received the most funding] and it wants to find ways to leverage on the growth and international interest those sectors currently have.

E-commerce is the first breakout sector in Nigeria’s relatively young “tech” age closely followed by fintech in the past couple years.

Jumia Nigeria’s parent company has received the highest amount of funding on the continent with a $1 billion valuation and since Nigeria is Jumia’s biggest market, it makes sense that Juliet Anamah be on the Council.

As for fintech, there are few Nigerian startups doing as much as Flutterwave right now. Iyin Aboyeji’s brainchild officially launched with $20 million in transactions and huge clients like Uber Africa. It has gone on to launch several product including MoneyWave and a virtual card company called Barter. Some of us believe Iyin will be a Naira billionaire by the end of this year — if he isn’t one already. Smart move by Osinbajo.

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None of Nigeria’s tech growth will be possible without Internet and one of the country’s leading ISPs is Swift. The broadband Internet provider is one of the 37 surviving ISPs in the country from 120 that started out in 2016. Clearly, they a thing or two about staying afloat in business-killing economy.

The government is yet to say how the policies put forward by the Council will be put into effect. There isn’t a clear time frame as well.

Other members on the Council include: