Osinbajo reveals $600m AfDB support fund to boost creative sector

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that the African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) $600 million dollars support fund will boost the digital and creative industry.

Osinbajo said this at an interactive session with graudands of Edo Tech Park, in Benin City, Edo, on Friday, while noting that the fund will be ready by early 2022.

He said that the Federal Government was committed to supporting young tech entrepreneurs and creating enabling environment for them to thrive.

“I think that one of the crucial things that the Federal Government has done is what we call the Technical and Advisory Council on Creativity and Technology

“That council was set up with young people who are in the tech sector and in the entertainment sector.

“The whole idea was for young people to advise in the formulation of policy in technology and the creative space.

“The reason why we decided to that is because technology for example is all over the world,’’ Osinbajo said.

According to him, one of the reasons why Nigeria has a good number of successful fintechs is because of the creativity council.

“Many of the fintech companies fitted into that space; but the problem that in order to do anything in the financial space, you probably will need a banking licence or a licence of some sort.

Read also: Osinbajo canvasses support for businesses in Nigeria

“So, if you are going to be handling a service of any kind or lending money, especially large sums of money, you probably will need a banking licence; now a banking licence is N25 billion to be able to do that.

“So, what the council did, working with the CBN, was to look at other types of licences that could be given to people who are in the fintech space; doing financial processing of various kinds of services in that space; who are not banks but who in many ways, behave like banks in some particular areas,’’ he added.

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