Nigeria's Startup Act turns four — now the hard part begins

Four years after Nigeria's president put pen to paper on a law meant to rescue the country's startup scene from regulatory chaos, the people who actually have to make it work are admitting the easy part is over. At a co-creation session in Abuja this week, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) essentially told the government: stop celebrating the legislation and start delivering what it promised.

The ask is blunt. NITDA wants 15 ministries, departments and agencies — the alphabet soup of Nigerian bureaucracy — to coordinate on implementing the incentives baked into the Nigeria Startup Act. Signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari on October 19, 2022, the Act was hailed as a turning point for a tech ecosystem that had grown faster than the rules governing it. But a law on paper is not a law in practice. The agency's subsidiary, the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), hosted the session precisely because the gap between what the Act promises and what startups actually receive has become the story.

Here is what the Act is supposed to deliver: more than 31 incentives spread across six buckets — tax and fiscal breaks, regulatory support, funding access, export and trade facilitation, ecosystem enablers, and training. That sounds like a feast. But Elma Andah, acting lead for strategy at ONDI, pointed out the problem in her presentation: implementing those incentives requires more than 15 government institutions to move in the same direction. They sit across trade, finance, communications, innovation and science ministries, each with its own mandate, resources and policy tools. In a country where government agencies often work at cross-purposes, that is not a small hurdle.

For outsiders, the stakes may seem technical. They are not. Nigeria's startup label — a certificate that defines who qualifies as a startup under the law — is the gateway to everything. Only registered limited liability companies incorporated within the last ten years can apply. Around 12,948 startups had registered on NITDA's portal before the Act even took full shape. Those companies are waiting for tax relief, easier access to capital and fewer regulatory bottlenecks. Every month of delay is a month where founders either burn cash on compliance or watch better-funded rivals in Kenya, Egypt or South Africa move ahead.

Victoria Fabunmi, ONDI's national coordinator, framed the moment correctly when she said the government must shift from policy design to operational delivery. That is the quiet confession at the heart of this story: Nigeria has been excellent at writing laws and less excellent at making them function. The Startup Act was meant to end the legal uncertainty that scared off investors. But uncertainty now comes from a different source — the inability of 15 agencies to agree on how to hand out the benefits they are legally required to provide.

The tax piece is the most telling. The Act's incentives fall partly under the purview of the Nigeria Revenue Service, an agency whose primary instinct is to collect, not to exempt. Getting the revenue service to move fast on startup tax breaks is like asking a lion to go vegetarian. That is why coordination is not a bureaucratic nicety; it is the entire ballgame. If the revenue service, the corporate affairs commission and the communications ministry cannot synchronise their databases and approval timelines, the startup label becomes a piece of paper with no power behind it.

What this reveals about African wealth and capital is uncomfortable but crucial. The continent's tech hubs have no shortage of founders or ideas. They have a shortage of execution — specifically, the mundane, unglamorous work of getting government machinery to deliver what it has already promised. Nigeria's startup ecosystem has produced unicorns and global attention. But the next phase of growth will not come from another flashy funding round. It will come from whether a founder in Lagos can actually claim the tax break the law says she deserves, without spending six months chasing three different agencies.

The forward path is clear, if difficult. ONDI and NITDA are pushing for a single portal that bridges regulators and startups, which the Act already mandates. The question is whether the 15 agencies will treat that portal as a shared tool or another turf to defend. For the international reader watching African capital flows, this is the real test. A startup act that works would send a signal across the continent: Nigeria can govern its digital economy. One that stalls will tell investors everything they need to know about where the risk actually lives. The law is four years old. The clock on its credibility is ticking faster.