Tinubu moves digital free zones to implementation, targets global jobs

President Bola Tinubu has moved Nigeria’s Digital Free Zones initiative to its implementation phase, targeting increased global investment, job creation and the retention of Nigerian technology companies and intellectual property in the country.

The President also directed the Minister of Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, to work with the Itana Innovation project and the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones to develop a roadmap for the full launch of the initiative within 180 days.

According to a statement issued on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the initiative is aimed at making it easier for Nigerian technology and service companies to raise global capital, employ Nigerians and build for international markets without relocating their businesses and intellectual property abroad.

Tinubu said the initiative would also create opportunities for young Nigerians to work for global companies from within the country while expanding the domestic ecosystem of engineers, developers, designers, lawyers, accountants and other professionals supporting digital businesses.

“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.

He said the Federal Government wanted more of the economic value created by Nigerian talent to remain in the country through jobs, investment, professional services, intellectual property and the growth of Nigerian businesses.

The President established and chairs the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones as part of efforts to modernise Nigeria’s free zone framework, which was created more than three decades ago, to meet the requirements of the digital economy.

“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.

“I want the next generation of African technology, finance and service companies to be built, headquartered and scaled to the world from Nigerian soil,” the President said.

The statement noted that the initiative was already taking shape, with Itana, Nigeria’s first Digital Free Zone, now licensed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority and providing a platform for global and pan-African digital and service businesses to establish and operate from Nigeria.

The Africa Finance Corporation is backing the $500m Itana Innovation project at Alaro City, Lagos. The project will combine an enabling policy environment with an innovation campus, access to capital and ecosystem services designed to help African startups build at scale and retain more of the value they create on the continent.

Tinubu said the administration’s ambition went beyond developing technology parks, stressing the need to establish Nigeria as a base for companies serving African and global markets.

“We want African companies to be incorporated in Nigeria, financed here and governed from here, while serving markets across Africa and the world. I want a young Nigerian in Kano, Enugu, Warri, Minna, Maiduguri or Ibadan to be able to work for a global company without leaving home, and I want our founders to raise capital globally while their companies and intellectual property remain in Nigeria.

“When these businesses grow here, they employ Nigerians, use Nigerian professional services and retain more of the value they create in our economy,” he said.

The Presidential Steering Committee will continue its work across regulation, taxation, banking, immigration, arbitration and the digitisation of government processes within Nigeria’s free zones.

The President also said the initiative would position Nigeria to benefit from the rapid expansion of Africa’s digital economy and the growth of digitally enabled trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“Nigeria has the talent and the market to reshape Africa’s place in the global technology and digital economy value chain. This is what our Renewed Hope commitment to a digital economy looks like in practice, and this is how we transform reform into opportunities. We made a promise to Nigerians. We are keeping it,” Tinubu said.