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NEW TECH ACTIVITIES AS STARTUP INCUBATION PICKS UP THE PACE IN NIGERIA WITH IDICE
3 days ago
iDICE sits on top of an existing ecosystem that includes private and donor-backed incubators such as CcHub, Orange Corners Nigeria, Antler Lagos and others offering 6‑month programmes, grants, mentorship and investor links to founders in the 18–35 age bracket.
Lagos Nigeria
Investment and startup activities in Nigeria are picking up, highlighting digital transformation, climate and environment, and regional politics beyond the core crises perceived globally.
Nigeria’s main federal tech incubation vehicle is the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises, iDICE programme. It is a roughly 617–618 million dollar public–development–partner fund-of-funds and support platform aimed at young digital and creative entrepreneurs.
iDICE is designed to back Nigerians roughly aged 15–35 who are building tech-enabled and creative ventures, especially at an early stage.
It aims to directly fund over 200 startups and provide non‑financial support to hundreds more digital and creative SMEs. Projections run into several million jobs and billions of dollars in added economic output over its lifetime.
iDICE Funding
The envelope is backed with major financing from the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Dévelopement (France), and the Islamic Development Bank. More so, federal counterpart funding routed through the Bank of Industry and additional private/institutional capital give it a worth of about 617–618 million dollars.
Government, via the Bank of Industry, contributes tens of millions of dollars in loans and equity alongside development-finance money. Private investors and DFIs are expected to bring roughly 250–270 million dollars more, making iDICE effectively a blended-finance platform.
iDICE operates across three pillars. The first, access to finance, equity, debt, and capability grants. The next pillar is skills and enterprise development, and the last is policy and regulatory reforms to improve the startup environment.
In 2025, the government anchored a new venture fund managed by Ventures Platform as the technology component manager. This fund achieved a first close of about 64 million dollars with investors. IFC, Standard Bank and British International Investment, alongside iDICE Capital, were named as contributors and investors.
Abuja has announced that two additional iDICE-backed funds will launch in 2026. One focused on the creative sector. The other is structured as a fund‑of‑funds investing into smaller vehicles that back tech and creative startups nationwide.
Officials frame these new vehicles as tools to “crowd in” more private capital, expand coverage beyond major hubs like Lagos. More so, it will be an avenue for supporting high‑growth and tech‑enabled firms as part of the broader economic transformation agenda.
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