The Federal Government has shortlisted 65 student innovators from a pool of 30,639 applicants across 404 tertiary institutions nationwide for the final stage of the Student Venture Capital Grant, a flagship initiative of President Bola Tinubu aimed at boosting innovation and entrepreneurship among young Nigerians.\n<\/p>\n
The announcement was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Folasade Boriowo, on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the selected students are developing solutions across sectors considered critical to national development.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking on the development, the Minister of Education, Maruf Alausa, described the programme as a strategic investment in the country\u2019s future innovators and job creators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality and ambition demonstrated by these 65 student innovators is deeply encouraging. Reaching this stage represents a significant milestone, and I look forward to the next phase as these ventures are refined and prepared for scale.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this initiative, we are building a strong pipeline of innovators and entrepreneurs who will drive Nigeria\u2019s future growth,\u201d the minister said in the statement.\n<\/p>\n
The SVCG, launched in December 2025 in partnership with the Bank of Industry, offers up to N50m in equity-free funding to student-led ventures that have reached the commercialisation stage.<\/p>\n
The initiative is designed to help young entrepreneurs scale their innovations, generate employment and contribute to economic growth. <\/p>\n
According to the ministry, the selection process involved multiple stages to ensure transparency and merit. Applications were first subjected to AI-enabled screening to assess eligibility and alignment with programme objectives, followed by human validation.\n<\/p>\n
Shortlisted entries were then evaluated by a committee comprising representatives from government, academia, industry and the investment community, using criteria such as scalability, feasibility, founder capability and impact potential.\n<\/p>\n
The 65 finalists are expected to participate in an intensive venture development bootcamp scheduled for March 26 to 29, 2026.\n<\/p>\n
The programme will include pitch sessions, workshops, live evaluations and investor-style feedback aimed at strengthening the ventures.\n<\/p>\n
Final decisions on grant recipients will be based on application scores, bootcamp performance and the recommendations of the evaluation committee.\n<\/p>\n
The initiative will conclude with the Student Venture Capital Grant Beneficiary Awards Day on March 29, 2026, where successful recipients of the N50m funding will be formally announced.<\/p>\n
The ministry said the programme reflects its commitment to fostering innovation, supporting student entrepreneurs and building scalable ventures capable of transforming Nigeria\u2019s economy.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Government has shortlisted 65 student innovators from a pool of 30,639 applicants across 404 tertiary institutions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[235951,51,3134,6929,1302,79236,241816,91364,107682,241817,16,15,67605],"class_list":{"0":"post-846091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-bank-of-industry","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-federal-government","12":"tag-innovation","13":"tag-ministry-of-education","14":"tag-n50m-grant","15":"tag-nigerian-students","16":"tag-student-innovators","17":"tag-student-venture-capital-grant","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-youth-empowerment"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116281545199367039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}