More than 17,000 students have applied for the recently opened Student Venture Capital Grant (S-VCG). This is according to Mr Adebayo Adebajo, the National Program Coordinator of the initiative’s Special Program Unit.
During the official launch of the S-VCG in Abuja on Monday, Adebayo said the initiative’s primary objective is to ignite and support student-driven innovation by cultivating ventures and projects directly from Nigerian institutions. By doing this, societal challenges will be addressed and, in turn, get commercialised through innovations.
Innovation is a culture. So the sooner we can get our students to start trying. Creating a culture where students understand that they can try, be supported, and have a platform to become successful is extremely important to the government.
According to him, the Student Venture Capital Grant portal has recorded 17,910 applications as of Sunday, December 7, 2025, from 412 public and private institutions nationwide. Further translation shows that 68,710 students have shown interest through group or individual application, while the initiative has recorded over 1,000 successful submissions.
The applications span solutions, projects, or businesses that fall under STEMMS: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences.
Recently, the federal government, through the Ministry of Education, opened applications for the Student Venture Capital Grant (S-VCG), an initiative that provides equity-free grants of up to ₦50 million. The program aims to identify high-potential innovators across Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Adebayo explained that the program aims to address the investment gap between venture capitalists (VC) and innovators. While VCs hardly focus on student innovators to provide grants, the federal government, through S-VCG, wants to bring equity innovators closer to universities and alleviate associated risks.
Venture Capitalists and private equity are primarily designed to generate money for their investors. And so the opportunity to bridge a gap where the government can ignite and start that process, so it becomes easier for our venture capitalists and global private equity investors to support. This is something that this program is also designed around.
In its funding, the Ministry has partnered with TETFUND, Universities, Bank of Industry, AfriLabs, Afara and other equity investors. It also partnered with Professors across universities who will provide entrepreneurship programs and also inform their research processes in the future.
Adebayo mentioned that the initiative has received encouraging submissions, including a robotic seed planter that helps farmers automatically plant their seeds. Another is a health tracker that uses AI to monitor student welfare, and a smart route condition monitoring system that also uses IoT sensors.
The ultimate goal is that in two, three years, we’re sitting and people are telling you that I started from the Student Venture Grant and now I’ve been separated by a combination.
S-VCG: Empowering Student Innovation Across Nigeria
The Student Venture Capital Grant, also known as the STEMM Up Grant, was first announced in July. The scheme forms part of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which aims to nurture student innovations into commercially viable and high-impact ventures.
At Monday’s official launch, the Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, described the initiative as a transformative shift in the Nigerian education and enterprise landscape. While ideas have often failed to transcend beyond the academic walls, she noted that the initiative seeks to help student innovators access equity funding and a structured support system.
Nigerian students possess ideas that hold the potential to solve pressing national and global challenges, generate employment, and elevate Nigeria’s standing in the global innovation arena. These campuses are living laboratories where creativity meets necessity and vision meets possibility.
Prof Suwaiba said the Student Venture Capital Grant is a strategic intervention designed to unlock the entrepreneurial potential within Nigerian campuses. She said the initiative represents more than financial assistance because it’s an equity-free, safe investment in Nigeria’s future.
Student Venture Capital Grant is a recognition that the next generation of global success stories will emerge from our lecture halls and innovation hubs.
For the program, the specific amount awarded to each project will depend on its scale, nature, and progress through particular milestones, which are tracked during an incubation period. Applicants need a clear business plan that includes expenditure milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs).