We’ll help Nigerian tech startups access our market, says US consul general

Will Stevens, the United States (US) consul general, says the US government will help Nigerian technology (tech) startups to access the country’s market.

Speaking with journalists on Saturday at the 2024 Africa Startup Festival in Lagos, Stevens said the US government is working to strengthen and enhance the partnership already established with Nigeria’s tech startup ecosystem.

He said nearly 60 percent of Nigerian startups currently receive venture capital from the US, and efforts are underway to expand that support.

“The US government is all in on Africa because we believe that the solutions to the problems we face are right here, in this room today. So, we are trying our best to grow and evolve the incredible relationship that already exists between Nigeria’s tech startup ecosystem and the United States,” Stevens said.

“We estimate that nearly 60 percent of Nigeria’s startups are receiving their venture capital from the United States already, and so we are trying to grow that.

“We are trying to make sure that they have access to US markets, that their intellectual property is protected, and so we’re doing that through a lot of things.”

According to the consul general, a special affiliate programme has been launched by the US government to integrate Nigerian startups into the American Business Council (ABC), thereby giving them direct access to US policymakers.

“We set up last year a special programme, an affiliate programme for tech startups to allow them to join the American Business Council, which gives you direct access to US policymakers, gives you access to us so we can advocate with your government on policy changes and ways to attract more investment,” he said.

“It also allows you to get expedited appointments for your visa request because you are a US company just like Chevron, Exxon, Microsoft. You are incorporated in the US, you are a US company. So we want to continue to give that big hug to the ecosystem.

“In 2050, Nigeria will be the third largest country in the world. It will be the second-largest democracy in the world. There will be a billion-person workforce on the African continent and that workforce will be educated, it will be entrepreneurial, it will be driving the change that we need to see in the world.”

‘US NEEDS NIGERIAN INNOVATION TO SOLVE GLOBAL CHALLENGES’

Stevens underscored the need for collaborative solutions to global challenges, including climate change, saying that the US sees Nigerian innovation as vital.

“We need African solutions to global problems. We need to bring the talent that’s in this room to help address the issues that are hitting all of us because there is no such thing as just an African problem anymore,” the consul general said.

“Climate change, backsliding in democracy, these are problems that we all face and we can’t do it alone. We in the United States can’t do it alone. We need you, we need your innovation, we need your solutions, and that is why you are seeing so much US interest in the tech ecosystem.”

Stevens reaffirmed the US government’s commitment to supporting the growth of Nigeria’s tech ecosystem to find solutions to global problems.