If you are looking for the latest funding opportunities for Nigerian entrepreneurs, you may find one here that you qualify for.
This month’s selection includes an accelerator program and calls for innovative startups to come up with solutions that’ll remedy some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
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Here’s the best of what’s available this May.
1. GSMA Innovation Fund
Fund Size: ₤100,000-₤250,000
Applications are currently open for the GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion.
The organizers are inviting startups and SMEs from Sub-Saharan Africa (including Nigeria) and Asia to enter this contest for the chance to win between ₤100,000-₤250,000.
You can apply if your business or startup is involved in the business of increasing the adoption of mobile internet in your region, or Nigeria as a whole.
They are especially interested in whether your startup or SME makes mobile internet and handsets affordable, accessible, or secure, and if it trains people in digital skills.
Deadline for Application: May 22.
2. 2020 Forbes8 Digital Startup Accelerator Program
Fund size: $100,000
This is Nigeria’s first Resilience Digital Startup Accelerator program, and it will be taking in 100 companies from across the country.
It’s powered by Forbes Magazine. Forbes8 is a digital viewing platform launched by the magazine to give entrepreneurs access to a broad range of global business leaders. It’s sometimes called ‘a Netflix for entrepreneurs.’
The platform will host the Resilience Digital Startup Accelerator. It’s inviting small businesses and startup founders to enter for a spot in the accelerator.
Successful applicants will go through a four-week intensive digital training, aimed at helping them to build businesses that’ll thrive in today’s world.
They could also get support worth $100,000 from AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Sendgrid.
Application Deadline: May 26
3. D-Prize Challenge
Fund Size: $10,000.
This is a funding opportunity for NGOs in Nigeria and other developing countries.
If you are a business or NGO that works to solve problems around water, sanitation and hygiene, girls education, agriculture, energy, health, education, governance, and infrastructure, this program could grant you $20,000 to launch a version of your solution in a location that’s hit by extreme poverty.
The organizers will be receiving up to 1,000 entries, and selecting about 50 of the top applicants. From this number, they will select a crop of businesses or NGOs that’ll receive up to $10,000 in funding for their solution.
This project targets enterprises and NGOs that distribute solutions in the named areas.
Application Deadline: June 1
4. MIT Solve Global Challenges 2020 for Entrepreneurs
Fund Size: $10,000
This program is an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is aimed at technology startups whether they are at the ideas phase, or they’re ready to scale.
It’s specifically interested in teams with solutions that
•Improve maternal and newborn care,
•Decreases the risk of disease among mothers and newborns,
•Improve the gynecological health of women, and
•Support the mental and emotional health of women during pregnancy and after childbirth.
Support from the MIT Solve challenge could help your team take your solution from the research stage to the pilot phase. And if you’re already in the pilot phase, it could help you grow or scale.
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Solve’s panel of judges will screen applications and select entries that are novel, have a good potential to impact the lives of their target population and can be scaled.
Finalists will present their solutions at the Solve Challenge Finals in New York in September 2020. The top teams from each of Solve’s four focus categories will receive $10,000 each.
Application Deadline: June 18
Featured Image Source: Tech Crunch
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