Cascador and NiYA give ₦49 million in non-dilutive capital to 17 Nigerian startups

The Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYD), through the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA), and Cascador have today announced eight and nine founders from the NiYA and Cascador Founders Programme Pitch Day as recipients of ₦5 million each and ₦1 million each, respectively, in non-dilutive funding to support their businesses’ growth. 

When FMYD and Cascador opened applications on International Youth Day in August for their joint accelerator pilot, more than 19,000 young entrepreneurs applied, but only 17 made the cut. On Tuesday in Abuja, that four-week pilot culminated in a Pitch Day that put ₦49 million in non-dilutive funding directly onto the balance sheets of those 17 startups. Eight top-performing founders received up to ₦5 million each, while the remaining nine cohort members secured ₦1 million apiece to fund their operations, build investment-ready businesses and access funding.

Unlike typical state-run empowerment schemes that hand out cash with little operational follow-through, the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA) and Cascador structured this pilot around fixing the unglamorous fundamentals that usually kill young Nigerian businesses. Before any founder pitched for capital, they spent four weeks in the trenches cleaning up their sales pipelines, customer service, and accounting infrastructure.

Sapphital Limited, the ministry’s technical partner, ran the cohort’s application and assessment infrastructure and onboarded all 17 businesses onto SMECore, its proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Every participant keeps access to the ERP tool after the programme, a deliberate move to ensure the grant money is tracked and deployed with proper corporate governance.

The accelerator also forced a rare direct encounter between early-stage founders and the regulatory bodies that often slow them down. Across the four weeks, the cohort sat in technical sessions and field days with nine major state agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), NITDA, and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). For startups building in heavily scrutinised sectors like food processing, clean energy, and cold-chain logistics, getting direct compliance guidance from regulators is arguably worth as much as the cheque itself.

Commenting on the programme, one of the beneficiaries, Kabir Olaosebikan, founder of plastic waste startup Craft Planet, said, “This programme will prove to be a defining step in our growth story, giving us the business foundations and confidence to pursue our ambitions. With the funding and ERP platform, we now have the means to put what we’ve learned into action.’’

The 17 grantees spanned 13 states across all six geopolitical zones, offering solutions in agriculture, waste management, and hardware.

The eight founders receiving ₦5m in the NiYA’s Youth Founders Programme:

• Andrew Ogbeh (SewPro)
• Patrick Ifeanyi Chukwu (Biuda)
• Ameedat Eniola Olaniyan (Sparklean Station Nigeria Limited)
• Favour Ngozi Nnadi (Backel Food Services Limited)
• Khuzaifa Aminu (Shellify)
• Ayisat Adama Adamu (Rèkool Access Technology)
• Godslove Emmanuel Asuquo (Agrosavvy Consult)
• Kabir Olaosebikan (Craft Planet)

The nine founders receiving ₦1 million in growth capital are:

• Aisha Bello Marafa (Eeshas Cake and Foods Limited)
• Zainab Abike Kadiri-Lawal (Zannytecture Recycling Company Ltd)
• Moses Onyema Nweke (UpSmart Energies)
• Evander Ikechukwu Ofomah (ParaLearn / Parakletus Hub Nigeria)
• Victoria Okor (Drych Digital Limited)
• Ibrahim Isah Liman (Agro-Chill Solutions)
• Solomon Tolulope Adedini (Sol-Uniq Green Resources)
• Bridget Shidoon Idyu (Bidvans Limited)
• Adam Umaru (TrashGo)

For the Youth Ministry, the pitch event serves as proof of concept for a much larger political mandate. Speaking on the outcome, Youth Development Minister Ayodele Olawande tied the partnership to President Bola Tinubu’s economic agenda, noting that NiYA is using private-sector collaborations to bridge the gap between basic skills training and actual enterprise funding. All 17 founders will retain NiYA alumni status with priority access to future state opportunities.

For Cascador, which traditionally focuses on growth-stage companies and deploys up to $5 million annually in debt and equity through its Catalytic Fund, the pilot marks a strategic reach further downstream into Nigeria’s early-stage pipeline.

“We share NiYA and FMYD’s commitment to giving Nigeria’s ambitious young founders the capital and practical support they need to build stronger businesses,” said Cascador CEO Trish Thomas. “Seeing eight deserving founders secure funding at Pitch Day is an encouraging outcome for the pilot.”

Still, the math remains sobering. While 17 startups now have the runway and software to scale, the 19,000+ applications left on the cutting room floor highlight the massive pressure on NiYA as it chases its stated goal of training and empowering 7 million Nigerian youth within two years.