Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN grant of five hundred million naira (500,000,000) would be made available to graduates and undergraduate persons, respectively.
The bank pledged to release the above sum of money in bits to promising youths within tertiary institutions and others who have completed their education to promote entrepreneurship and reduce unemployment.
But if you are wondering how to access such funds to grow your business idea and promote in the market space, think no further because this article hopes to guide you through the entire process.
Meanwhile, according to the bank, priority would be given to innovative entrepreneurial activities containing the highest potential for export, job creation, and transformational impact.
First, to gain access to the graduates and undergraduates funds issued by the apex bank, you need to ensure that you obtain the report issued by the bank and go through the requirements.
Issued on Wednesday, October 20, 2021, the report is titled ‘Guidelines for implementing Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme’. It contains critical points a prospective young business owner needs to know to access the grants.
Note that up to five top Nigerian universities and polytechnics presenting the best entrepreneurial pitches/ideas would receive a cash award of one hundred and fifty million (N150,000,000) if the competitor comes in the first place.
Also, second place, the person or group with the following best business proposal would be awarded a grant of one hundred and twenty million naira (N120,000,000). In comparison, the person that gets third place would then receive the sum of one hundred million naira (N100,000,000).
The granting doesn’t just end at the third place as more rooms were created to accommodate both a fourth and fifth position. Any idea that obtains fourth is guaranteed to get eighty million naira (N80,000,000) as the fifth-place would receive fifty million naira (N50,000,000).
For the CBNgrant, the bank said the programme would accommodate exercises like innovative start-ups and existing businesses owned by graduates of Nigerian polytechnics and universities in agribusiness, information technology, creative industry, and science and technology.
Elaborating in areas that agro-business would cover during the pitching, the bank pointed out that there would be production, processing, storage and logistics.
Both graduates and undergraduates should also get ready for mastering areas that have to do with application/software development, business process outsourcing, robotics and data management, all under information technology.
Meanwhile, those in the creative industry would include entertainment, artwork, publishing, culinary/event management, fashion, photography, beauty/cosmetics, as participants would be expected to deliver their best in this segment.
Prospects in the science and technology category would include medical innovation, robotics, ticketing systems, traffic systems, renewable energy, and waste management during the idea suggestion process.
What seems to be more encouraging about the whole idea is that the interest rate will be five per cent per annum and nine per cent effective from March 1, 2022, or as may be prescribed by it.
Note that while a beneficiary must put in an application to partake in the programme, they need to understand the entire explanations in the following paragraphs as one needs to gain access to the form through a dedicated online portal from the CBN and provide all requisite information documentation to support the application.