The Federal Government has reaffirmed that the N50 million venture capital grant for outstanding students in Nigerian tertiary institutions is still on course.

It explained that the process of identifying and selecting qualified students has commenced across institutions, emphasising that the initiative will enable universities to highlight the ingenuity and problem-solving abilities of their students.

Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Arc. Sonny Echono, stated this in Abuja while hosting the Administrator/Chief Executive Officer of the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), Barrister Imeh Okon.

According to the TETFund boss, each institution is expected to pick students with promising ideas, while a national committee of experts from different fields will review the shortlisted students and make the final selections.

Echono explained that all necessary arrangements for the take-off of the initiative have been concluded, including the provision of the seed fund and the design of selection modalities. He said the move is part of the government’s effort to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and job creation among young Nigerians.

The Executive Secretary further stressed that the project aligns with TETFund’s mandate to support research and innovation in tertiary institutions, adding that the Fund would continue to partner with relevant agencies and institutions to ensure that students’ creative ideas are nurtured into viable business ventures.

His words: “There are students in our various TETFund beneficiary institutions who have demonstrated some creative abilities and come up with products, services, or solutions that they will need to take to the market to commercialise, to get buy-in from manufacturers and venture capitalists. The Federal Government will create a fund.

“That fund is going to be managed by the Bank of Industry. And when that happens, we’ll be able to help support development in terms of prototyping and even proof of concept, down to development of the initial product, to make it readily available for the private sector to adopt and commercialise by multiplication.

“We have set the machinery in motion. The fund is in place. We have a seed fund that we have established, and that funding has been provided. We’ve held a series of meetings with all the parties. The modalities for selection are already being worked out and are happening at the level of the institutions because it is the institutions that know their students who have come up with ideas that have shown promise,” he said.

According to him, once the national committee completes the initial phase of assessment and makes its first selections, the successful beneficiaries will be formally announced. “By the time the committee comes up with the first set of selections, we will call the media, and the beneficiaries will come and receive their prizes,” he said.

Echono added that the amount to be awarded will depend on the scale and nature of each student’s innovation, noting that the upper limit remains N50 million. “It can be anything up to N50 million to be able to achieve that,” he stated, reaffirming that the initiative is progressing as planned.

The Guardian reports that in July this year, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, had announced the Nigerian Government’s offer of a N50 million venture capital grant to outstanding students in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) fields.

Tagged the Student Grant Venture Capital Initiative, he said it would provide up to N50 million in grants to high-achieving STEMM students in Nigerian universities, starting from 300 Level.

Although the initiative was expected to be rolled out between September and October this year, The Guardian learnt that the final stage of evaluation and approval is still being finalised by the national committee overseeing the programme.

The fund, set up through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI), is headed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Dr Tayo Aduloju.