Sahara Group Foundation Awards $130,000 to African Innovators to Drive Transformation
Africa’s New Wave of EXTRApreneurs Gains Momentum
The Sahara Group Foundation (SGF), the corporate social impact arm of Sahara Group, has unlocked another bold chapter in Africa’s innovation renaissance — awarding over $130,000 to 20 trailblazing entrepreneurs across the continent under the revamped Sahara Impact Fund (SIF) Cohort 4 and Making A Difference Around Africa (MADAA) programmes.
The announcement was made in Lagos by Chidilim Menakaya, Director of the Sahara Group Foundation, at a high-energy Gala Night celebrating exceptional African innovators building solutions in clean energy, agritech, manufacturing, digital transformation, circular economy, social enterprise, and frontier technologies.
For nearly two decades, the Sahara Group Foundation has positioned itself as a catalytic force for sustainable progress — investing strategically in entrepreneurship, environmental transformation, youth empowerment, and inclusive community development across Africa.
But 2025 marks a deliberate evolution.
Menakaya revealed that insights from previous programme cycles exposed a widening “innovation-to-market” gap, prompting SGF to redesign both the SIF and MADAA frameworks to remove structural barriers, strengthen capacity, and enable scalable, investment-ready African ventures.
“By reinventing the Sahara Impact Fund and elevating MADAA, we’re closing the loop between discovery, support and scale. We’re building a clear, structured and fully supported pathway for high-potential entrepreneurs to deliver measurable, continent-wide impact,” Menakaya said.
A Pipeline for Africa’s Next Generation of High-Growth Entrepreneurs
Sahara Group’s refined approach goes far beyond funding — embedding a continent-wide capacity-building and business-intelligence system that prepares EXTRApreneurs for long-term resilience, commercial readiness, and regional expansion.
David Ayinde, Programme Supervisor, noted that the Foundation’s work is no longer about grants alone, but about building a sustainable innovation ecosystem:
“We’ve built an advisory system that equips our EXTRApreneurs with the intelligence to scale sustainably — governance, commercial strategy, financial discipline, and stakeholder engagement.”
The 2025 cycle attracted over 2,000 applications from across Africa. A rigorous, multi-stage process shortlisted 300 innovators for intensive strategy masterclasses led by Sahara Group executives and industry experts.
From this pool, 20 of Africa’s most promising EXTRApreneurs emerged as finalists for the Sahara Business Advisory Bootcamp and the Sahara M.A.D Den — where they secured seed funding of $10,000, $5,000, or $1,000.
Meet the New Class of African EXTRApreneurs
$10,000 Grant Winners
Entrepreneurs from Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Botswana and South Africa emerged top-tier winners, including:
- Chinwendu Augustina Nweke – Bridge Merchant Enterprise (Nigeria)
- Elvis Kadhama – Essymart Africa (Uganda)
- Violet Awo Amoabeng – Skin Gourmet (Ghana)
- Tracey Shiundu – FunKe Science (Kenya)
- Salma Medhat – Hiryo (Egypt)
- Dr. Sisay Abebe – KMS ETH Health Trading S.C (Ethiopia)
… and others across key innovation sectors.
$5,000 Grant Winners
Recipients from Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya include innovators in cleantech, circular economy, agritech, and digital solutions — companies like Smokeless Briqs Energy Solutions, Maximus Recycling, and Nawiri Organics.
$1,000 Grant Recipients
Emerging innovators exploring frontier technologies and sustainable products, including EdGo Technology, Camelot Agroecology, Gridcrux Energy, and others.
Driving Africa’s Entrepreneurial Future
Sahara Group Executive Director Dr. Kola Adesina charged the awardees to embrace innovation, resilience, and commercial discipline as they scale their businesses across the continent:
“These attributes will determine who leads Africa’s transformation. Your innovations must become engines of wealth, job creation and global competitiveness.”
Another Executive Director, Ade Odunsi, reinforced that Sahara’s support extends beyond the grant lifecycle:
“Our objective is to ensure these innovators don’t just survive — they scale. Our advisory framework is designed to build truly African global businesses.”
BRANDECONOMY Insight: Sahara Group Is Building Africa’s Missing Middle
Africa’s biggest entrepreneurship challenge is the missing middle — early-stage innovators with strong ideas but weak pathways to market penetration. Sahara Group’s newly aligned SIF + MADAA pipeline is a bold attempt to fix that market failure.
What makes the 2025 strategy particularly compelling:
1. Innovation + Investment + Advisory = Holistic Scale Model
The Foundation is no longer running fragmented programmes. It is building a continental pipeline from ideation to scalability — a model often missing in Africa’s fragmented entrepreneurship landscape.
2. Pan-African Selection = Continental Collaboration
Awardees from 10+ African countries signal a deliberate focus on cross-border growth and knowledge transfer — essential for AfCFTA-era competitiveness.
3. ESG and Sustainability Rooted in Real Business
Many winning solutions sit at the intersection of climate action, clean energy, women-led enterprise, and inclusive development.
4. Grant + Governance Discipline
Sahara Group is pushing for a culture shift — from grant dependency to investment-readiness and corporate governance, positioning African EXTRApreneurs as future global players.
5. A Model for Corporate Africa
This programme shows what African corporates can achieve when social impact strategies are treated as economic engines, not charity gestures.
Sahara Group’s sharpened impact pipeline is not just supporting entrepreneurs — it is building the architecture for Africa’s future markets.
