The World Bank, under its Growth and Employment (GEM) project, has approved the sum of N756.3 million for disbursement to 81 young Nigerian innovators who participated in the 2016 Aso Villa Demo Day (AVDD) – one of the economic empowerment initiatives of the present administration.
A document obtained from the World Bank-funded GEM project indicated that the money would be disbursed to the beneficiaries in two tranches after a grant signing ceremony scheduled for end of March, 2017.
The AVDD in collaboration with GEM project invited business plan submissions from candidates that participated in the regional AVDD 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% cut off point and environmental and social compliance check.
Other details contained in the document showed that the beneficiaries are drawn from Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Cross River, Delta, FCT, Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Osun, Oyo, Plateau and Rivers state, while 20 others were yet to be registered on the portal.
A breakdown of the grant disbursement process showed that submission of company registration documents for validation is ongoing.