Kayode Tokede

The federal government has awarded N200 million in grants to 14 exceptional women engineers to scale up innovations addressing Nigeria’s key development challenges.

The initiative, led by the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), marks the second phase of the Developing Engineering Leadership and Technology–Her (DELT-Her) programme, designed to tackle gender disparity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Speaking at the award ceremony held in Abuja, the Chairman of PICTT, Dr. Dahiru Mohammed, described DELT-Her as a transformative step toward nurturing a new generation of women leaders in engineering and technology.

“DELT-Her was born from a national vision to rectify the gender imbalance in STEM fields, fostering an environment where women can lead groundbreaking innovations,” Mohammed said.

He explained that the programme had recorded remarkable growth since its inception. While the inaugural edition in 2024 empowered six female engineers with N70.5 million, the 2025 cycle received 9,925 project proposals, a sharp increase from 120 applications last year.

“From this competitive pool, fourteen remarkable female engineers have emerged as this year’s awardees, receiving over N200 million in grant funding to advance their innovative projects,” he added.