The World Bank, under its Growth and Employment (GEM) project,
has approved N756.3 million for disbursement to 81 young Nigerian
innovators who participated in the 2016 Aso Villa Demo Day (AVDD).
The AVDD is one of the economic empowerment initiatives of the present administration.
A
document obtained from the World Bank-funded GEM project on Monday in
Abuja, showed that the money would be disbursed to the beneficiaries in
two tranches after a grant signing ceremony earlier scheduled for end of
March.
The AVDD, in collaboration with GEM project, invited business plan
submissions from candidates that participated in its regional pitch
screening events that took place in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja from
which the 81 beneficiaries emerged.
According to the document, “the GEM
project requested for submission of business proposals from eligible
applicants of the AVDD 2016 programme of which 289 applicants were
screened before the final 81 were eventually picked after a rigorous
process of vetting’’.
The GEM document
showed that all 81 submitted applications passed the 50 per cent cut
off point and environmental and social compliance check.
Other
details contained in the document showed that the beneficiaries were
drawn from Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Cross River, Delta, FCT, Kaduna,
Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Osun, Oyo, Plateau and Rivers states, while 20
others were yet to be registered on the portal.
A breakdown of the grant disbursement process shows that submission of company registration documents for validation is ongoing.
The
document showed that “a total of 36 of the 81 applicants have submitted
the required company registration and legal documents to date.
“The registration of applicants on the
Business Innovation Growth (BIG) portal is ongoing with 61 of the 81
applicants fully registered on the portal’’.
The
World Bank indicated in the document that verification of
implementation and milestone achievement would be conducted as condition
for the second disbursement while subsequent surveys would be conducted
on the firms for impact evaluation.
The
World Bank said that a mechanism to ensure full implementation of
objectives contained in the selected proposals was already in place
while a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation work plan had been
designed.
The idea behind the GEM
programme, the World Bank noted, “is to further support the presidency’s
drive to celebrate and empower the most promising and highly scalable
indigenous technology start-ups who are providing innovative solutions
to local challenges in Nigeria’’.
The Aso Villa Demo Day is an initiative
of the Buhari presidency that targets young Nigerian entrepreneurs with
innovative business models that could contribute to the growth of the
economy.
The winners of the 2016 AVDD
emerged from a national technological innovation competition held in
Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.
The
Federal Government initially gave grants to the best three of the 30
innovators that emerged from the regional competition who were invited
to participate in the grand finale of the AVDD 2016 held at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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