By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

The emergence of new technologies and the increasing globalization of research and development and investment have significantly changed the nature and scope of industrial competitiveness. Countries are moving further into knowledge-based economic development, of which technological venturing is a key factor for international comparative advantage in industry.

Knowledge and technological capabilities are becoming increasingly crucial for national development in order for countries to respond effectively to emerging challenges and opportunities. Strengthening and promoting technology ventures through incubation programmes for new technology-based enterprises are necessary for them to survive in a competitive society.

Compared to the old “big is beautiful” industrial order, the new thinking sees “small” and “entrepreneurial” as better, especially in terms of contribution to technological innovation, economic growth, employment and social equity. Therefore, the promotion of SMEs is essential in economic development plans of the government.

Technology incubators have contributed to startups of high technology-based enterprises in the newly industrializing economies of Asia and the Pacific and in the more developed economies of the world.

Keeping those perspectives in mind, the Abuja Technology Village (ATV), in partnership with the Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship, Coventry University Enterprises Ltd and the UK Business Incubation (UKBI) organized a one-day Stakeholders’ Workshop on Business Incubation with the theme: Developing Successful Business Incubation in the Nigerian Context, in Abuja.

The workshop which featured presentations from various speakers was aimed at highlighting creative avenues towards developing a sustainable enterprise system in Nigeria. One of the objectives of the workshop was to set a national policy framework for tackling the challenges of enterprise establishment in Nigeria.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, who declared the workshop open, said that job creation and wealth generation were two principal economic drivers all over the world. He made reference to the Job Creation bill sponsored by President Obama to the Senate of the United States of America to emphasize the essence of entrepreneurship development through small and medium enterprises as a basis to resuscitate and reposition ailing economies.

Mohammed also said that business incubation was therefore an essential development process for commercialising ideas and research, encouraging and supporting innovation, encouraging young graduates to create their own businesses, creating export avenues as well as developing new industry sectors.

Represented by the Director of Economic Planning in the Ministry, Alhaji Mohammed Ari, the Minister stressed that the Federal Government had already taken steps towards encouraging entrepreneurship by establishing institutions such as the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI), Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

To set the tone for the workshop, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Business Incubation, Peter Harman defined business incubation to be the merging of collaboration and competition, where risk must be considered. He stated that business incubation is one of the single most important global innovations of the 21st Century, stressing the need to integrate business incubation with the economic drive of Nigeria.

According to Harman, “Business incubation brings together small businesses to collaborate in order to thrive easier; it is a flexible way of carrying the people and enterprises along. The central purpose of such incubation is job creation, building wealth and establishing business opportunities.”

On his own part, the Assistant Director of Coventry University Enterprises, Dr. Clive Winters, pointed out that commercialisation and technology was essential in the incubation approach and that more graduates should be encouraged to start up their own businesses with orientation from the universities where entrepreneurial enthusiasm is built in them.

Speaking at the workshop, the Managing Director of the ATV, Ms. Hauwa Yabani, noted that other objectives of the workshop include to review the current entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria, to discuss lessons learnt from other parts of the world, especially the critical success factors for successful business incubation in Nigeria, key players and their respective roles, and to deliberate on business incubation model options and alternatives for Nigeria.

According to her, “Abuja Technology Village is a Science and Technology Park, STP, a development initiative aimed at creating Africa’s preferred technology research, incubation, development, and outsourcing destination. The STP will provide for the tenant technology businesses, a balanced lifestyle environment in which to operate with competitive advantage. The businesses will have access o Africa’s largest consumer market, proximity to every part of Nigeria, easy access to key global destinations and enabling infrastructures”.

She stressed, however, that the incubator alone is not enough for business development and it is necessary to provide business/ technology incubation systems to create and sustain the competitiveness of enterprises, especially SMEs at the national level.

Another speaker, Director General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. Umar Bindir, prompted Nigerians to develop their technology by setting up institutions and stop the overdependence on foreign technology, explaining that such technology institutions would provide skilled man-power, new ideas, new technology, new service models and innovations.  gested that the way out of these challenges would include a total commitment by government to the development of business incubation through continuous funding of business development services and increasing the patronage of MSMEs in the procurement process.

Prof. Wole Soboyejo, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Princeton University and Africa University of Science and Technology, Abuja, cited Asia as an example of countries that used science and technology as a rallying point for developing enterprises. Basil Udotai of Technology Advisors, a patent advisory company, said that one of the celebrated stories of incubation was Steve Jobs who started Apple Inc from a garage until it became a household name 40 years later. Given the forgoing, he said therefore, that Nigeria had to establish a strong intellectual property law regime which would ensure patent registration and protection in line with international best practices as the only way of protecting innovations by the citizens.

A Senior Manager at the Bank of Industry, BOI, Ms. Betsy Obaseki, said that the bank had focused its operations on supporting SMEs because it had realized that SMEs were the drivers of the economy. The bank supports all businesses that were established and managed in Nigeria in order to enhance entrepreneurship development in the country. He emphasised the fact that the bank finances working capital but primarily finances equipment in procurement for businesses.