AN OVERVIEW OF THE NIGERIA STARTUP ACT OF 2022 AS A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR AN EMERGING ECOSYSTEM.

Abstract

Globally, technological advancements are at an all-time high. This evolution presents 
unprecedented opportunities for growth and development for Nigeria and the continent of Africa.
On a global scale, the former, based on the growth of its startup ecosystem, ranked 2
nd in the 
hierarchy of advanced ecosystems in Africa and 131st among 190 countries in 2019 globally. 
Presently, startup businesses are springing up at a very fast rate all over the world. This is,
however, not without the incidences of cybercrime, environmental factors, funding challenges, and 
other problems. This led to the need to regulate the startup business ecosystem and the enactment 
of the Nigeria Startup Act 2022. This is a laudable effort because previous literature on startup 
businesses and their effect on the economy gave no consideration to the legal frameworks 
regulating them. This paper is an overview of the said Act. It examines its operations and objectives
for stakeholders involved in startup business and its adequacy as a legal framework regulating an 
emerging startup ecosystem in Nigeria. In conclusion, the paper offers recommendations for
sustaining startup seed funds through the provision of regulations limiting the amount investable 
per time and the recovery time limit. An increase in incentives to support the growth of startups is 
also suggested. Companies seeking to be registered as a startup but are still undergoing 
incorporation processes should be given a provisional label to allow them to start, while 
registration of the startup label focusing on local markets is advocated for