The promised N50 million venture capital grant for innovative tertiary institution students is moving forward as planned.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund has confirmed that the selection process is already underway across universities nationwide, with institutions currently identifying promising student innovators for the transformative initiative.
Arc. Sonny Echono, TETFund’s Executive Secretary, provided this reassurance during a meeting with the Administrator of the Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Barrister Imeh Okon, in Abuja.
He explained that each institution bears the responsibility of identifying students with promising ideas, after which a national committee comprising experts from various fields will review the shortlisted candidates and make final selections.
“There are students in our various TETFund beneficiary institutions who have demonstrated creative abilities and come up with products, services, or solutions that they need to take to the market to commercialize,” Echono stated. “The Federal Government will create a fund to support them.”
The Executive Secretary revealed that all necessary groundwork has been completed, including establishing the seed fund and designing selection criteria. The Bank of Industry will manage the fund once disbursements begin.
“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,” Echono confirmed. “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.”
This institutional level approach makes sense, universities and polytechnics interact daily with students and can better identify those whose innovations show genuine commercial potential.
The initiative aims to bridge a critical gap in Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem. Many students develop brilliant solutions but lack resources to move beyond the prototype stage.
TETFund’s programme addresses this challenge by supporting development from initial concept through prototype creation to producing market ready products that the private sector can adopt and scale through mass production.
“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 commercialize by multiplication,” the Executive Secretary explained.
While the maximum grant stands at N50 million, Echono clarified that actual amounts awarded will vary depending on each innovation’s scale and requirements.
“It can be anything up to N50 million to be able to achieve that,” he noted, emphasizing that funding will match the specific needs of each project rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
Once the national committee completes its initial assessment phase and selects the first batch of beneficiaries, TETFund plans a formal public announcement.
“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,” Echono promised.
Education Minister Dr. Tunji Alausa first announced this venture capital grant opportunity in July 2025, targeting outstanding students in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine collectively known as STEMM fields.
The Student Grant Venture Capital Initiative specifically focuses on high achieving STEMM students from 300 Level upward in Nigerian universities.
Initial timelines suggested a September – October rollout, but the national committee is still finalizing evaluation and approval processes to ensure proper selection criteria are applied.
The programme operates through a partnership between TETFund and the Bank of Industry, with Dr. Tayo Aduloju, CEO of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, heading the oversight committee.
This collaboration brings together educational funding expertise, commercial banking experience, and economic development knowledge, a combination designed to maximize the initiative’s impact.
Arc. Echono emphasized that the grant programme aligns perfectly with TETFund’s core mandate to support research and innovation in tertiary institutions.
Beyond simply providing money, the initiative represents government commitment to promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and job creation among young Nigerians.
TETFund pledged continued partnership with relevant agencies and institutions to ensure students’ creative ideas receive the nurturing needed to become viable business ventures that contribute to Nigeria’s economy.
For students working on innovative projects, this confirmation offers renewed hope. Rather than watching promising ideas fade due to lack of funding, qualified innovators now have a clear pathway to transform their concepts into commercial realities.
The institutional selection process is already active, meaning students should engage with their universities about opportunities to showcase their innovations for consideration.