THE NEW START UP BILL HAS BEEN SIGNED INTO LAW. NOW WHAT?

Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Nigeria Start-up bill into the Constitution, to provide a thriving environment for businesses that are technology-inclined in the nation. This act is welcomed by industry stakeholders as they describe it to be a new dawn for the nation’s economy. A communications volunteer for the Start-up Bill Project, Stephen Edache, highlighted the expectations of this new development to usher in a new era, and set in motion new rules of engagement for the start-up ecosystem.
The act seeks to enforce the transparency of federal laws in favour of the tech ecosystem. By doing so, an enabling environment for the nation’s tech ecosystem is inevitable. The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said that the act is a major achievement of this new digital transformation era. The Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be headed by the President, and this was provided by the start-up Bill.
All start-up companies are eligible for pioneer status incentives and other tax reliefs. Also, there will be access to percentage-based tax reliefs for start-ups with at least ten employees, where 60 per cent of them did not have any work experience, within three years of graduation, or any vocational program.