You may have heard about the 15 million dollar ICT Venture Fund that was brought to life by the Ministry of Communication and technology in August 2012. The ministry started this fund to finance projects and initiatives that are commercially viable in the ICT sector.
Anyone who had a brilliant idea in the ICT domain received the funding. As stated by the minister, the funding was meant to help build locally created and developed innovations. Most of these innovations had initially failed due to lack of either funding or assistance, however, with the fund, the ministry will be investing in the innovation as well as in the person behind it.
In a breakfast meeting held in Lagos at the Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Mobola Johnson who is the Minister in charge of Information Communications and Technology in Nigeria, disclosed that the fund will be available for accessing close to the end of July, 2014.
Though the minister declined to disclose the status of the fund, she revealed that Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency would be anchoring the fund as well as making a contribution of 3.6 million dollars to it.
Local and foreign stakeholders, on the other hand, would contribute 11.4 million dollars, and this would be managed by independent managers of Nigeria’s ICT incubation team.
With the closure of the entry at the end of June, investments will be set to begin in July. Ideas that show creativity and innovation will receive the funding they need. Although, it could take anything between ten and fifteen years for any returns to be realized, this fund will be a long-term deal that will see many online entrepreneurs benefit.
Funding for the involved infrastructure companies will be through The African Development Bank. This too will be on a long-term basis. The bank will be in partnership with the ICT venture capital fund on broadband.
