VenturesNow

Nigeria’s Zone Tech Park is armed with $6.5 Million to turn ideas into ventures

Published

5 years ago

August 4, 2018

Zone Tech Park, a new venture builder for start-ups in Nigeria, has officially opened for business and is already turning great ideas into products and services.

According to Bolaji Olagunju, its founder, “African startups are faced with significant challenges that hinder their growth. Zone Tech will change the status quote and help individuals and their businesses to realise their full potential through education, venture building and strategic enterprise support.”

To date, US$6.5 million has been invested in Zone Tech Park to build the infrastructure and environment needed to help African startups scale and compete globally.

Zone Tech Park is open for start-ups at all stages in their life cycle, from those that are a great idea on paper to those with customers already on-board. Its co-working space is FREE for start-ups, which are not charged for access to the tech hub’s multitude of services and advisers.

Zone Tech Park also promises to plug its start-ups into a network of more than 400 corporations, giving them direct access to market, helping them to avoid bottlenecks, strike deals faster, and scale quicker. Zone Tech Park will support its start-ups in preparing for funding rounds by giving access to a network of potential investors, accelerator programs, and ecosystem architects.

The hub is also promising an experienced in-house engineering team of 20+ software developers and designers, and entire finance, legal, marketing, sales and fundraising teams.

Prior to its official launch, Zone Tech ran a small pilot program and has built Peerless, a learning management system that already has 10,000+ users and revenues of 100,000 USD and Outwork, a staff on-demand solution with 7,000+ users.

Related Topics:Bolaji Olagunju Nigeria Zone Tech Park

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VenturesNow

Nigeria’s Tinubu to present N27.5trn budget on Wednesday

Published

1 day ago

November 28, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

The Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, will present the 2024 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the country’s bicameral legislature, the National Assembly, on Wednesday.

The bill is an increase from the N26.01tn earlier considered by the council, according to the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, who confirmed the approval to State House correspondents after the close of FEC’s weekly meeting presided over by President Tinubu.

In addition, the minister disclosed that the government had projected N18 trillion in revenue for the fiscal year 2024. Bagudu stated that more information regarding the appropriation bill would be made public on Wednesday when the president brought it before a joint session of the National Assembly.

The minister stated that the Council was currently reviewing the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, which was approved by the National Assembly.

Bagudu said, “Equally, the Federal Executive Council approved the 2024 Appropriation Bill and the presentation of such to the National Assembly by His Excellency, Mr. President.

“The bill has an aggregate expenditure of N27.5tn which is an increase of over N1.5tn from the previously estimated, using the old reference prices.”

He added, “The forecast revenue is now N18.32tn which is higher than the 2023 revenues, including that provided in the two supplementary budgets. Equally and commendably, the deficit is lower than that of 2023. Details of the Renewed Hope Budget will be announced by Mr. President when he makes the presentation to the National Assembly”.

With two key policy initiatives—halting the fiscal bleeding caused by petrol subsidies, and unifying the exchange rate—the Nigerian government, led by Bola Tinubu, has attempted to stabilise the economy of the nation. With its currency value declining even further and the cost of living rising sharply, the results have not been favourable.

VenturesNow

Nigeria’s cabinet approves $1billion AfDB loan

Published

2 days ago

November 27, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Olawale Edun, confirmed on Monday that the Federal cabinet had approved a $1 billion concessionary loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The coordinating minister of the economy said the loan would support financing the budget and improving foreign exchange supply.

“(Federal Executive Council) approved a $1 billion concessionary loan for general budget support and to be used to improve forex availability in the country,” Edun said.

“The $1 billion loan from AfDB is a budget support fund for ongoing economic reforms. It is to support government programs … in power sector, social inclusion and the fiscal policy reforms as a whole sector policy initiative.”

The Nigerian government under Bola Tinubu has sought to stabilize the country’s economy with two major policy actions: the removal of the fiscal bleeding through petrol subsidies and the unification of the exchange rate. The results have not been positive with the further fall of its currency value and sharp rise in cost of living.

Falling oil prices, large-scale crude oil theft, and the substantial amount spent on fuel subsidies are currently having an impact on Nigeria’s public finances as the country struggles with mounting debt.

The level of indebtedness in African countries is at its highest in more than a decade, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and skyrocketing inflation. African nations were forced to incur even more debt, and as a result, 21 low-income African nations are currently either insolvent or at great risk of experiencing debt hardship.