Last updated: August 19, 2026
Abuja, Nigeria — August 19, 2026 — The application portal for the NiYA × Cascador Founders Program has officially gone live, the Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYD) confirmed today. Young Nigerian entrepreneurs can now apply through the Nigerian Youth Academy's dedicated grant portal, marking the start of a pilot programme that will put up to ₦5 million in non-dilutive funding into the hands of eight early-stage founders.
The programme was first announced on August 14, 2026, to coincide with International Youth Day, as a partnership between FMYD, NiYA, and Cascador, a Nigeria-focused platform that has supported growth-stage founders since 2019. Today's portal launch turns that announcement into an active application window.
What the programme actually offers
The NiYA × Cascador Founders Program is a pilot cohort built around 20 early-stage Nigerian founders, notably including entrepreneurs who don't yet have a formally registered business or an established financial track record. Selected participants go through an intensive four-week curriculum covering business fundamentals, investment readiness, and pitch preparation, delivered primarily in Abuja with virtual sessions and one-on-one mentorship supporting the in-person work.
At the end of the four weeks, the eight highest-performing founders in the cohort will receive up to ₦5 million each in non-dilutive funding from Cascador, meaning recipients keep their equity. Winners also receive an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution intended to help them structure and manage their business as they scale, and the programme closes with a Pitch Day where participants present to a panel of judges.
All 20 participants, not just the eight funded finalists, retain NiYA alumni status afterward, with priority consideration for future opportunities under the programme.
Who's behind it
NiYA and FMYD are handling founder sourcing, training, and day-to-day delivery of the programme. Cascador's role is narrower but central to the funding side: the organisation helps define eligibility criteria, supports the cohort's investment readiness, judges the pitches, and ultimately funds the top performers.
"What we're building together now is the missing piece, a practical bridge from the ideation stage to real capital-readiness," Cascador CEO Trish Thomas said when the partnership was announced. Oyin Solebo, Cascador's COO and a former Managing Director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, described the model as a way of combining government-led entrepreneurship development with private-sector capital.
For FMYD, the programme fits inside a much larger ambition. The Ministry has stated a goal of training and empowering seven million Nigerian youths within two years, and this pilot is positioned as a foundational step toward that target rather than a standalone initiative.
How to apply
The application portal is now live and accessible directly, with the specific grants page for this programme reachable through NiYA's platform. Applicants should apply through the official portal rather than any third-party or unofficial link circulating on social media, since federal youth funding announcements have historically attracted impersonation attempts.
Based on how the programme has been described publicly, applicants should be ready to speak to their business idea or existing venture, their reason for applying, and their readiness to commit to an intensive four-week schedule based primarily in Abuja. Founders without formal business registration are explicitly not disqualified, a deliberate design choice by the programme organisers to reach earlier-stage entrepreneurs than typical accelerator criteria would allow.
As with any newly opened government portal, applicants may want to confirm current form requirements and any deadline directly on the portal itself, since exact submission windows for pilot cohorts like this one are sometimes adjusted after launch based on volume.
Why this matters beyond the ₦5 million
The most notable design choice in this programme isn't the funding amount, it's who's eligible for it. By explicitly welcoming founders without formal business registration or financial history, NiYA and Cascador are targeting a segment most funding programmes screen out by default. That's consistent with a broader pattern across Nigeria's grant and funding landscape this year: a growing number of programmes are widening eligibility to reach earlier-stage and previously unregistered founders, rather than concentrating funding only on already-formalised businesses. Our recent roundup of grants African SMEs can apply for between August and October 2026 tracks several other examples of this shift, alongside more traditional grant structures.
It also sits alongside a wave of other funding announcements this month specifically targeting young and student founders. NANS opened its own free-to-enter student business grant, NANSInnovate 2026, earlier this month, details of which we covered here, and the regional ECOWAS Startup Awards, offering $65,000 to founders across West Africa, closes for applications at the end of this month, which we broke down in full here. Taken together, August 2026 has been an unusually active month for Nigerian and West African founder funding specifically.
For founders preparing an application to any of these programmes, having a professional, verifiable online presence, somewhere evaluators can see real business activity rather than just a written pitch, tends to strengthen an application generally, even where it isn't a stated requirement. Platforms like Siiqo let Nigerian entrepreneurs set up a storefront showing real transaction history and customer activity, which is one way of demonstrating traction beyond the application form itself, though it is not a listed criterion for the NiYA × Cascador programme specifically.
This is a developing story. Details on the exact application deadline and any changes to eligibility requirements will be updated here as they're confirmed.
