The iDICE Programme
Nigeria's $617 million Federal Government investment in digital and creative enterprises — a programme Ife knows from both sides of the table: first as the government lead who secured its co-financing, now as the National Coordinator delivering it.
The opportunity
Nigeria has the talent, the youth, and the market to build a world-class digital and creative economy — but founders and creators have long been starved of patient, appropriately structured capital and the institutions to channel it. iDICE was designed to change that: a single national programme, co-financed by three multilateral partners, to invest across the country's digital and creative sectors at scale.
From securing the money to delivering it
Before iDICE existed as a programme, it had to be financed. Over years of technical and policy engagement from the Presidency, Ife led the government side of the work with the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement and the Islamic Development Bank that culminated in board approval of the co-financing package. When the programme launched in March 2023, he took on its delivery as National Coordinator at the Bank of Industry — the executing agency — leading the Programme Coordination Unit and serving as Secretary to the iDICE Technical Committee, under a Steering Committee chaired by the Vice President.
How it is built
The programme runs on four components. Enterprise & skills development stands up innovation hubs and Technology Centres of Excellence in universities and polytechnics, youth training, and support to the national AI and robotics agenda. Access to finance is the heart of it — a Technology Fund (managed by Ventures Platform), a Creative Fund, a Fund of Funds (managed by Kuramo Capital), and a Bank of Industry debt window through partner banks. Enabling environment operationalises the Startup Act and reforms the rules around IP and skills. The fourth component is the coordination unit itself.
Proof it is working
By the first quarter of 2026, the programme had moved decisively from set-up into delivery: roughly $47.5 million disbursed across the financiers, more than two dozen procurements at contract stage, and the Technology Fund operational with its first investment — a $3 million seed-to-scale commitment into Cybervergent, an AI-native pan-African cybersecurity company. The iDICE Startup Bridge accelerator launched in March 2026, the Islamic Development Bank's non-interest (Murabaha) window became effective, and Kuramo Capital's Fund of Funds onboarding advanced. A full-circle detail: several of the innovation hubs Ife helped build from 2016 now appear as iDICE delivery partners. (Programme figures as of Q1 2026; refreshed each quarter.)
