By JONAH NWOKPOKU

African governments have been challenged to take a cue from the United States of America and Israel’s approach to the tech industry by playing increased role in the start-up industry.

The Minister of Information and Communication Technology, ICT, Mrs. Omobola Johnson gave the charge while delivering a keynote address at the DemoAfrica conference held in Lagos recently. She said: “Governments in Africa have an important role to play in catalysing the start-up industry as evidenced in the US and Israel.”

She noted that, “The Nigerian government has done and will continue to do her bit to support the software development industry.”

Speaking on other initiatives that the Federal Government has undertaken to boost the tech sector, Johnson explained that the government is contributing to the development of a robust pipeline of start-ups with initiatives like Techlaunchpad which is an industry focussed software competition, including others like IDEA incubators and accelerators.

She disclosed that seven companies have been graduated from the hub and that “70 start-ups have been added to this fledgling but vibrant ecosystem and 4 IDEA incubates have emerged finalists for DemoAfrica 2014.”

She further disclosed that the government will soon be conducting the first close of the government seeded IT Innovation Fund.

“Government has committed $9 million as seed capital to this fund to be managed by EchoVC and we are literally a month or so away from making our first investment in a number of Nigerian/African tech start ups,” she said. She however noted that there are still challenges that need tackled in order to see more investments in the sector. She therefore called on governments to intensify efforts in building infrastructure and creating more opportunities in this sector.

“There is still a lot to be done, infrastructure to be built to connect more and more Africans to the internet, more ideas to be birthed, more companies to be nurtured and more investments to be made in these companies. African governments must support and sustain this,” she said.

On the Demo Africa event, the minister noted that in the two years of DemoAfrica, alumni have generated over $8 million worth of investments, businesses and partnerships.

“This is how you create jobs, new business opportunities expand economies, improve social well being of citizens. Importantly, these outcomes also speak directly to our ‘companies and not code’ philosophy in the Ministry of Communications Technology.

It is good to show prowess in software development but it is even better to develop businesses and companies that are powered by that software. The recent IPOs of Twitter and Alibaba are testimonies of what is possible,” she said.