President Bola Tinubu has given the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones 180 days to develop a roadmap for the full launch of Nigeria’s digital free zones initiative.
The directive is part of the Federal Government’s plan to attract global capital, promote digital investment and encourage technology companies to establish and retain their businesses and intellectual property in Nigeria.
Tinubu also directed the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, to work with the committee on an implementation plan within the specified timeframe.
The President established and chairs the steering committee to modernise Nigeria’s free-zone framework, which was created more than three decades ago, for the digital economy.
Oduwole serves as the committee’s vice-chairman and implementation coordinator.
In a statement on Friday, Tinubu said the initiative was intended to create an environment where Nigerian technology, finance and service companies could build and scale globally without relocating their businesses or intellectual property abroad.
“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,” Tinubu said.
“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 Nigeria’s first digital free zone, Itana, had been licensed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and was providing a platform for global and pan-African digital and service businesses to establish and operate in the country.
He added that the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) was backing the $500 million Itana Innovation project in Lagos.
According to Tinubu, the project is expected to provide an innovation campus, access to capital and ecosystem services for African startups.
He said the government’s ambition extended beyond technology parks, with Nigeria seeking to become a destination for digital innovation, technology investment, high-value services and knowledge industries.
“We want African companies to be incorporated in Nigeria, financed here and governed from here, while serving markets across Africa and the world,” he said.
Tinubu said the initiative would enable young Nigerians to work for global companies without leaving the country, while allowing Nigerian founders to raise capital internationally and retain their companies and intellectual property 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 President said Nigeria could leverage the expansion of digital trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to become a base for companies serving markets across Africa and globally.
“Nigeria has the talent and the market to reshape Africa’s place in the global technology and digital economy value chain,” he said.
The steering committee was inaugurated on August 7 to work on regulation, taxation, banking, immigration, arbitration and the digitisation of government processes within the digital free zones.
