A significant number of young entrepreneurs in the Sports, Entertainment & Technology (S.E.T) sectors are facing challenges in growing their businesses in Nigeria.
Statistics have also shown that 80% of businesses fail within the first 5 years due to factors relating to economic, legal & financial issues.
Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL), a law firm in Nigeria, is passionate about supporting early-stage S.E.T. Entrepreneurs in their Businesses.
In this edition of Innovation Support Network (ISN) hubs featuring innovation centers in Nigeria, we had a chat with SET Growth Capsule, the virtual hub section of OAL’s Sports, Entertainment & Technology department in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The SET Growth Capsule founded by Beverly Agbakoba-Onyejianya, was started to provide free legal advice, business support and regulatory & compliance advisory to Sports, Entertainment & Technology businesses in their idea stage.
“We observed that most startups are not legally sound and due to the lack of capital, they cannot afford premium legal advice. The SET Capsule was started to bridge this gap.”
According to the founder, hubs can foster innovation/entrepreneurship in Nigeria by making it easily accessible to the general public.
“Nigeria currently has the fastest growth for startups in Africa, however, many of these startups do not have access to funding nor access to societies that foster the growth of startups.”
Stating further, the founder said that the biggest challenge for the hub is having participants in the SET Capsule stay till the end of the program. We took on 6 participants and we currently have 2 active participants in the program.
Another challenge according to Beverly is the virtual nature of the capsule. “Due to covid, virtual events have been on the rise, but this has also increased the lackadaisical attitude of people toward virtual events.”
Moving a startup from the idea phase to the execution stage when they start to make an impact in their immediate societies is also another challenge.
On how the government can assist hubs, Beverly stated that the government has started this process with the presence of the Nigeria Startup Bill in the legislature.
This bill according to her is to provide a good enabling environment for tech startups in Nigeria. “We agree that making it “tech-centric” is wrong as not all startups are tech-inclined. However, this is a great step in the right direction.”
Beverly added that ISN has provided the SET Growth Capsule with the opportunity to be visible. “They say that it’s not just doing the work that matters, one should be seen doing the work. ISN has helped put the SET Capsule out there and we greatly appreciate this.”
Featured Image: Beverly Agbakoba-Onyejianya, Founder, STEM Growth Capsule
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