iDEA Centres to Become Financial Independent in 2 Years

Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA) is to become financially self sustaining by 2016, according to Federal Ministry of Communication Technology (FMCT) Progress Report on Projects & Programmes Implementation, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.

iDEA provides essential support to entrepreneurs to build software skills, solutions and businesses critical to their success.

Entrepreneurs accepted into iDEA Centres receive support in the way of physical work space, shared facilities, training, mentoring and access to capital.

The report which covered July 2011 to February 2014, said that the iDEA centres which are currently being wholly funded by the government through the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEVF), should be able to fund themselves more independent of government by 2016/2017.

The plan entailed  that iDEA would be funded through funds from multi-lateral agencies like Microsoft, IBM, Google, etc., local companies, private individuals and revenue generated by iDEA itself.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recalled that the federal government had recently begun tinkering with different financing models to help start-ups and companies leverage on the software gold-mine industry.

In 2013, the government working through reputable financial investment institutions, sought to raise $15million through private equity.

This is in addition to government’s initial seed capital of $3.1milllion, approximately N500million then, from the NITDEVF.

Mrs  Omobola Johnson, minister of Communications Technology said in the report that, in under three years, the FMCT has pursed its mandate evenly and assiduously, delivering the first integrated National ICT Policy, Nigeria’s first ever National Broadband Plan and a National Content Plan for the ICT sector, to increase the participation of Nigerian companies and domestic value added in the lucrative and fast growing sector.

She said, “The Model is proven, ICT is the fourth pillar of the Nigerian economy contributing about 7.8% to the country’s GDP and fastest growing sector”.