The pain of having a business idea that will sell or have a business that is already making a profit but the profit is not enough to expand the business is not one anybody will want to experience. Although it is inevitable, there is a need to source for funds for business expansion or startup financing.
There are several ways of getting funds for your business and we have discussed some of them. Some of them include getting business loans from banks, family, and friends, associations, etc. Loans come with interest rates and mostly involve the use of collaterals. To check out a list of all methods available for getting funds for your business, click here.
For small businesses, going for loans is not ideal and so, there is a need to find other methods of financing a business without using loans. Because of this, we have researched and found out several grants that are available for Nigerians and can be accessed by anyone who is a Nigerian citizen.
A grant as we all know is a quantity of money given by the government, private agency, family or person to someone, business or organization for a specific purpose – for business in this case. People given grants in most cases are not required to pay back the money given to them as a grant but some are required to pay back if they leave the course for which the grant was given.
In Nigeria, there are several grants available for budding entrepreneurs and businessmen that not many people know about. We took our time to find out some grants available for Nigerians and came up with this masterpiece.
We will discuss some of them in a bid to give you an overview of what they are all about and how to go about applying for them. It is now left for you to research more about them and make sure you meet their required qualification criteria for you to get the grant. It may interest you when you get to know the huge amount of money that well-meaning individuals and the government provide yearly for grants.
Grants available in Nigeria for businesses and entrepreneurs
1. BOI funds: Bank of Industry (BOI) is a government establishment which was formed out of the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB). This organization has several programs aimed at helping Nigerian youths and indeed everyone who is ready to expand or build a business in Nigeria. Some of their programs include:
The Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) program: this program is designed to train Nigeria youths on different skills in a bid to make them able to manage their business on their own and comprises of several activities.
They include an Eight week online entrepreneurship and business management training which is intensive and also nice (they have a mechanism of tracking participant’s progress), in-class entrepreneurship classes and training on different skills done at their different vocational centers across Nigeria, etc. To find more about the YES program, head to their website www.boi.ng
Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF): this is meant for graduates who are on their NYSC in which they are allowed to submit business ideas which are screened by a team of experts. Owners of ideas that pass the screening test are trained for some weeks and are given between N500,000 and 2 million naira.
Other programs offered by BOI include a fund for the automobile industry, funds for agro-processors, and funds for Nollywood players, etc.
2. YouWin connect: this is another powerful source of grants for Nigerian entrepreneurs. It is a program that is powered by the Federal Ministry of Finance. They aim at promoting entrepreneurship, creating jobs and alleviating poverty among Nigerian youths.
There are certain criteria that must be met by applicants to ensure that they get chosen. These criteria include; that the applicant must be a graduate from a higher institution, be between the ages of eighteen (18) and forty (40), must be a Nigerian living in Nigeria, must not be a civil servant, must be willing to attend their training and mentoring exercises, communicate effectively in speaking and writing, have a business that is located in Nigeria and is not a previous awardee of the program.
For further details, visit their website https://www.youwinconnect.org.ng
3. Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program (TEEP): this is a yearly program organized by a Nigerian business tycoon Mr. Tony Elumelu through his Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF). In this program, he picks 1000 entrepreneurs from all around Africa from more than 50000 applicants and sets aside 10,000 USD for funding these businesses.
This program starts with an application and submission of a business model for a business which is reviewed by a team of business experts based on certain criteria. The program is on at the time of writing this post and application usually starts from the 1st of January to the 1st of March every year.
The criteria to be met before applying for this grant includes that the business in question must be based in Africa, the applicant must be at least 18 years, resident or citizen of an African country, the business must be between zero (0) to three (3) years, and must be strictly for profit.
For more information, visit www.tonyelumelufoundation.org
4. Grofin: Grofin is a pioneering development financier specializing in financing and supporting small and growing businesses in South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Ivory Coast.
Grofin has its headquarters at Mauritius, boasts of 600 SME investments as at the time of writing this post and sustaining over 95,125 jobs. They support sole-proprietors, partnerships, limited liability companies, legal entities, and close corporations. The criteria for their investment in your business depends on your commitment and your skills, knowledge, etc. to run your business.
They provide financing for your business based on your business plan and cash flow projections and their finance can be used for purchasing a business or franchise, growing your business or a new product line, investing in property or assets related to your business, starting a new business, etc.
To know more about Grofin, head to their website at www.grofin.com
Conclusion:
There are several other sources of grants that were not discussed here but we are of the belief that these are real and can be applied from Nigeria. Have you had any bad experience with any of the forementioned sources of grants? Let us know about it by commenting below.
Do you have other genuine sources of grants? We would also wish to know about them. tell us about them through the comment section also.
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