ELIGIBILITY

Applications are particularly encouraged only from Polytechnics and Universities based in
Nigeria. These tertiary institutions must have relevant licenses and must be duly accredited by
relevant government regulatory agencies/authorities.

ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES
Areas eligible for consideration under the Developmental (Grant) component of the TIES Grant
Intervention initiative shall include the following verticals:

 Agribusiness – production, processing, storage and logistics;

 Information Technology – application/software development, business process
outsourcing, robotics, data management;
 Creative Industry – entertainment, artwork, publishing, culinary/event management,
fashion, photography, beauty/cosmetics;
 Science and Technology – medical innovation, robotics, ticketing
 Trading activities shall not be eligible for financing under the Scheme.

NOTE: Each eligible Tertiary Institution (University or Polytechnic) can submit up to a

maximum of two (2) applications under any of the verticals. Whilst special consideration shall
also be given to innovative entrepreneurial proposals with high potentials for export, Job creation
and transformational impact.

Grant Criteria

The project proposal must meet up with the set objectives of the TIES scheme. Evaluation of
proposal will be based on the following criteria:

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This should include a brief description of project/innovation to include the following:

 Location of Project – provide clear address and state where project is located;
 Project objectives – what the projection/innovation intends to achieve;
 Key Assumptions and Success Criteria – give full description of the underlying
assumptions of project with details of criteria for success;
 Project implementation timelines with milestones - provide details of project phases
with duration to achieve them, presented in a Gantt chart;
 Project team members - list out every team member with their BVN and means of
identification (divers licence, national id card or international passport. Where a company
is involved, the Certificate of Incorporation must be provided;
BUSINESS/INVESTMENT CASE
In specific terms, this section should clearly show the business opportunity identified for which
the TIES grant is being sought. This should include:

 The description of product/service - provide detailed description of identified

product/service;
 Regulatory Compliance - provide evidence of product/service registration and licensing
with appropriate authorities where necessary;
 The market analysis – identified market (domestic or/and foreign), the market size (the
demand/supply gap assessment to justify investment of funds), and the existing/potential
clients being targeted;
 Project Cost and Fund Utilization – a description of how funds will be utilized with
key cost items clearly stated;
 Financial & Revenue Projections – this should be number-driven with quantitative
analysis;
 A scan of the business environment - risk and mitigants analysis and any other relevant
information;
 Social & Economic Impact – Describe project’s expected outcomes and impact in terms
of job creation, foreign exchange accretion and contribution to GDP. You are advised to
be quantitative.

INTERNAL SUPPORT WITHIN THE TERTIARY INSTITUTION

Provide in detail areas where the tertiary institution (university or polytechnic) will provide in
support of the project/innovation. A Letter of Support from Tertiary Institution to be provided

DURATION
Grants period will not be more than 24 months and applicants should be ready to start the project
within 4 weeks of being notified of the award. All proposals will need to show a GANTT Chart
with milestones to track progress.

PROPOSAL PAGE LIMIT

Grant application should not exceed ten (10) typed pages (11 or 12-point font and 1.5 spaced
paragraph) including the executive summary of 1 page:

 Introduction & Executive Summary – 1 page;

 Project Description – 2 page;
 Business/Investment Case - 4 pages;
 Funding Details - 1.5 pages;
 Internal Support Mechanisms – 1 page;
  Conclusion – 0.5 Page.

SELECTION PROCESS
For this purpose, a Body of Experts (BoE) shall be constituted from the private and public sector
to evaluate entrepreneurial and technological innovations submitted and recommend for
financing, as appropriate. The submitted applications shall be evaluated by the BoE through
engagements that showcase undergraduates competing by pitching entrepreneurial and
technological innovations at regional levels, with finalists proceeding to the national event for
final consideration and ranking by the BoE. The BoE shall meet regularly to appraise these
entrepreneurial and technological innovations project proposals and submit progress reports to
the CBN.
The Online Application Process
The application process on the portal is divided into two parts:
1) First is the ONLINE REGISTRATION on the portal and then;
2) The Second is ONLINE GRANT APPLICATION on the portal to submit your grant application.

1) Registration on the Portal

As an institution you must to be registered on the Portal by your representative which is
expected to be the Registrar of your Institution. The registration process is divided into two
based on the Institution Types – either UNIVERSITY or POLYTECHNIC. If you are a representative
of Polytechnic, you should register under the Polytechnic Section and if you are representative
of a University, you should register under the University Section.

Under either Polytechnic or University, the registration process is further sub-divided into four
(4) parts based on the registration information required. These are a) University/Polytechnic
Details, b) Registrant's Personal Details, c) Registrant's Contact Details and d) Registrant's
Email & Phone No. Validation and Submission of Registration. These parts are explained as
below:

a) University/Polytechnic Details Section: There are five (5) dropdown fields under this section.
The fields under section are ‘SELECT UNIVERSITY/POLYTECHNIC'. A Registrant is expected to
select his/her Tertiary Institutions from list of pre-populated Universities/Polytechnics. The next
field is ‘UNIVERSITY TYPE’ this field is auto selected based on the University/Polytechnic
selected. The next fields under this section are ‘STATE’, ‘LOCAL GOVERNMENT’ and ‘GEO-
POLITICAL’ of the Tertiary Institution selected.

b) Registrant's Personal Details: The information required in this section of the registration
form are personal details of the registrant (the registrar). There are five (5) fields in this part of
the registration form. The fields are ‘FIRST NAME’, ‘OTHER NAME (middle name)’, ‘LAST NAME
(Surname)’, ‘GENDER’ and ‘BVN’.

c) Registrant's Contact Details: This section requires the Registrant to provide his/her contact
details. There are five (5) fields in this section. The fields are ‘AUTHORITY LETTER’ this is a
document upload field. The registrant expected to upload a letter authorising him/her to
register a Tertiary Institution. The document to be uploaded should be in PDF and not more
than 2mb in size. The next fields here are ‘PHONE NO.’, ‘EMAIL ADDRESS’ – The registrant must
provide and active and valid Phone number and Email Address because this will require
validation in the next registration section.
d) Registrant's Email & Phone No. Validation and Submission of Registration: In this
Registration Section, the PHONE NUMBER and EMAIL ADDRESS you had earlier provided will be
validated using a six (6) Digit One Time Password (OTP) that will be sent to your phone number
as SMS and email address as EMAIL (please check your junk/spam mail should it be delivered
there). To receive the OTP in your email, click on ‘Send PIN to my Email’ after receiving the OTP,
kindly enter the digits in the corresponding field ‘ENTER PIN FROM EMAIL’. The same for Phone
number validation, click on ‘Send PIN to my number’ after receiving the OTP as SMS, kindly
enter the digits in the corresponding field ‘ENTER PIN FROM PHONE’. After this, click on ‘VERIFY
& SUBMIT’.

e) After the completion of the registration, you will receive and email confirmation.