Federal Government to Offer ₦50 Million Grants to 50 Student Entrepreneurs

Nigeria's Federal Government has opened applications for a programme that could give 50 student-led ventures up to ₦50 million each in equity-free funding.

The second cohort of the Student Venture Capital Grant, also known as the Next Moonshot Initiative, targets student entrepreneurs with science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based business ideas. Adebayo Onigbanjo, national coordinator of the Special Programme Operations and Implementation Unit at the Federal Ministry of Education, announced the application opening at a news conference in Abuja.

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For Cohort 2, we are looking for quality applications from student innovators across Nigeria, from which 50 outstanding ventures will ultimately be selected.

“For Cohort 2, we are looking for quality applications from student innovators across Nigeria, from which 50 outstanding ventures will ultimately be selected,” he said. Successful applicants will be eligible for grants to develop and scale their businesses.

The programme will first use artificial intelligence to screen applications. Ten human evaluators will then assess them, followed by virtual presentations. Finalists will attend a three-day boot camp and pitch their ventures in person to an evaluation committee.

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Successful applicants will be eligible to receive up to N50 million equity-free grant from the Federal Republic of Nigeria to develop and scale their businesses.

The selected ventures will also receive six months of mentorship supported by corporate and entrepreneurial organisations, including Lafarge, Cellulant/Childtech, Powerhouse, Co-Creation Hub/African Stalking, LifeBank, Future Africa, GetEquity and One Health. The Student Venture team and its partners will visit nine tertiary institutions across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones from September 6 to September 30 to widen access.

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Nigeria does not lack innovative young people. What many lack is the opportunity and capital to take these ideas further.

Onigbanjo said the initiative formed part of President Bola Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda and the Ministry of Education's Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative, particularly its STEM pillar. “Nigeria does not lack innovative young people. What many lack is the opportunity and capital to take these ideas further,” he said.

He said universities, polytechnics and colleges of education should become places where ideas are developed, solutions created and businesses born.

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Our universities, polytechnics and colleges of education must increasingly become places where ideas are developed, solutions created and businesses born.