Some doors closed this week. Others are still open, and a few have dates you can still beat.
This week’s round-up covers five scholarships and five funding routes for Nigerians. The Commonwealth Scholarships closed on 20 October, and the second round of the Student Venture Capital Grant closed on 30 September. Still open are the AMIR Fund’s medical scholarship, which closes on 30 October, and a NiYA and Cascador founders programme that pays up to ₦5 million and has no closing date published. Here is each one, starting with the scholarships.
The AMIR Fund has the nearest deadline. It offers up to 20 full-tuition scholarships to Nigerian students of medicine (MBBS) or dentistry (BDS) who are at 200 Level or above. You need a CGPA of at least 3.50 out of 5.00 and a low-income household, and your university must be one of 11 on the fund’s list. Awards go straight to the university. They renew each year until graduation, with mentoring added. Applications close on Friday, 30 October. Interviews run until 27 November. Applying is free. See the AMIR Fund page.
The Commonwealth Scholarships have just closed for 2027 and 2028, but they are worth knowing now. Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education nominates candidates for one-year taught master’s degrees and PhDs of up to three years in the UK. Winners get full tuition, airfare and a monthly stipend of £1,712, or £2,000 in the London area. Master’s applicants needed at least a 2:1. Everyone needed offers from at least two UK universities. Results are due by July 2027. Scholars must agree to return to Nigeria. See the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and the Ministry’s call.
Germany’s DAAD funds many kinds of study, so details depend on the programme you pick. One example is EPOS, for development-related master’s degrees and PhDs. It pays a €934 monthly stipend. It also covers tuition, health insurance and travel, and it asks for two years of work experience. Deadlines for October starts usually fall between November and January, so start early. Search the DAAD scholarship database.
The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program works through partner universities, so you apply to the school and not to the Foundation. Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos was the first Nigerian partner, and it plans to support 650 scholars over ten years at undergraduate and postgraduate level. See the Pan-Atlantic page and the Foundation’s education programmes.
Türkiye Scholarships are the one to put in your calendar. The government of Türkiye covers your university placement, tuition, a monthly stipend, health insurance, housing, a Turkish language course and a one-time flight ticket. Applying is free and done online. When we checked, the dates for the 2027 intake had not been announced. Watch the official site.
Now to the money for businesses. The Student Venture Capital Grant (S-VCG) is the big one: 50 student-led ventures can win up to ₦50 million each, with ₦2.5 billion in total and no equity taken. The second round closed on 30 September. Shortlisted teams now face virtual pitches and a bootcamp. Winners get six months of mentoring. If you are a student founder, use the wait to register your business with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Registration and a project beyond proof of concept were both required. See the S-VCG site.
The newest route is the NiYA and Cascador Founders Programme. A pilot group of 20 young founders gets four weeks of in-person training in Abuja on business basics, investment readiness and pitching. The eight best founders at the end share non-dilutive funding of up to ₦5 million each from Cascador, plus an ERP tool to run their business. Applications opened on 19 August. See the NiYA grants page.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) is harder to pin down. It was launched in 2021 to offer graduate entrepreneurs loans of up to ₦5 million, or ₦25 million for partnerships. It also covers equity and a contest for institutions. Its terms may have changed since then. We left out the old web address, because it now sends visitors to an unrelated betting site. Check the CBN’s own website, cbn.gov.ng, for current details. Never pay anyone to “process” an application. Read the 2021 guidelines coverage.
iGov Nigeria is an opportunities portal that lists jobs, free courses and grants for small businesses, farming, youth and community projects. You can switch on alerts to hear when a grant window opens. It says it will never ask you to pay to apply for a government grant. See iGov opportunities.
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development is the home of NiYA and several other youth schemes, including a help desk. Its site also lists the Cascador programme above. Use it as a starting point for government youth programmes. If something looks odd, confirm it through the Ministry’s own contacts. See the Ministry’s site.
Why it matters: Scholarships and grants can change a life, and scammers know it. Several of these programmes say clearly that applying is free. A site that asks you to pay is a warning sign. A web address that has changed hands, like the old TIES one, is another.
What to watch next: the Türkiye Scholarships calendar for 2027, DAAD deadlines from November to January, AMIR Fund interviews until 27 November, and the next rounds of the S-VCG and the Commonwealth Scholarships.
Sources: AMIR Fund Medical Scholarship; Commonwealth Scholarships and Fellowship Plan 2027/2028, Federal Ministry of Education; Study in Europe on scholarships for Nigerian students; Mastercard Foundation on Pan-Atlantic University; Türkiye Scholarships; VON on the second S-VCG round; S-VCG; Techeconomy on the NiYA and Cascador programme; TheCable on CBN TIES; iGov Nigeria; Federal Ministry of Youth Development.
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