The Nigerian government has presented N756 million (US$2.47 million) grants to 81 young innovators from the Aso Villa Demo Day (AVDD) held last year.
The grant award ceremony was held in Abuja yesterday chaired by Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. He said that the grants were expected to bring change to entrepreneurship in the country through the use of technologies.
The AVDD Grant is part of the Growth and Employment Project (GEM) developed by the Federal Government, domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Development and financed by the World Bank.
The awardees were part of the Aso Villa Demo Day event convened by President Muhammadu Buhari last year and attended by Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, which targeted young Nigerian entrepreneurs with innovative business models that could contribute to the growth of the economy.
According to the vide president, “Before us today, we have 81 innovators who have come through a competitive process to position themselves as game-changers for the Nigerian economy and indeed for the world.”
Osinbajo said 25,000 young Nigerians were also being trained on digital skills to use technologies to solve local problems.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, said the GEM project has since inception disbursed about N1 billion to small and medium scale enterprises in the country.
The GEM Project is a $160m World Bank IDA Credit with a Project Implementation Unit at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
