Sahara Group Foundation awards N187m impact fund to 20 beneficiaries

The Sahara Group Foundation (SGF), the social impact arm of Sahara Group, has awarded over USD $130,000 (about 187.8m) to 20 outstanding African EXTRApreneurs under its flagship Sahara Impact Fund (SIF) Cohort 4 and Making A Difference Around Africa (MADAA) initiatives.

For nearly two decades, the Sahara Group Foundation has been a catalyst for sustainable development across Africa, investing in programmes that advance entrepreneurship, environmental stewardship, innovation, and community transformation.

The 2025 editions of the SIF and MADAA programmes were re-engineered in response to insights from previous cycles, which revealed a widening gap between early-stage innovation and market entry in Africa.

By deliberately aligning MADAA and SIF, the Foundation has built a streamlined innovation pipeline designed to eliminate barriers, strengthen capacity, and ensure sustainability well beyond the life of the grants.

“Our focus goes beyond disbursing grants,” said David Ayinde, Program Supervisor, Sahara Group Foundation, during the Awards and Gala Night.

He added, “We have built a capacity development and business advisory framework that equip our EXTRApreneurs with business intelligence, financial strategy, governance discipline, and commercial readiness to scale their solutions sustainably across African markets.”

“By reinventing the Sahara Impact Fund and elevating the MADAA programme, we are closing the loop between discovery, support, and scale,” said Chidilim Menakaya, Director, Sahara Group Foundation.

“These enhancements reflect our commitment to identifying high-potential changemakers and innovators, equipping them with the right skills, and creating real pathways for them to grow sustainable solutions. Ultimately, this integrated approach ensures that promising EXTRApreneurs have a clear, structured, and fully supported route to delivering measurable impact across their communities,” he said.

Dr Kola Adesina, Executive Director, Sahara Group charged the awardees to embrace resilience, discipline, and innovation in their businesses.

Also speaking, Ade Odunsi, Executive Director, Sahara Group, said, “Sahara started out with the mindset of EXTRApreneurship. Your businesses must have unique value propositions that can continually be reengineered for more impact through innovation.”

The 2025 programme cycle attracted over 2,000 applications from across Africa, demonstrating the depth of innovation on the continent. A rigorous selection process shortlisted about 300 innovators for an intensive Capacity Building Workshop delivered by Sahara Group experts. The sessions covered business strategy and sustainability, governance and regulatory compliance, brand positioning and communications, commercial and stakeholder management, and legal, financial, and tax advisory processes.

20 high-potential EXTRApreneurs were eventually selected for the Business Advisory Bootcamp and Sahara M.A.D Den in Lagos, Nigeria, ultimately receiving grants for their businesses.

The recipients of $10,000 include: Chinwendu Augustina Nweke of Bridge Merchant Enterprise (Nigeria); Elvis Kadhama of Essymart Africa Business Link Limited (Uganda); Violet Awo Amoabeng of Skin Gourmet (Ghana); Tracey Shiundu of FunKe Science (Kenya); Salma Medhat of Hiryo (Egypt); Anita Nsiah Donkor of Timoya Farms (Ghana); Dr. Sisay Abebe of KMS ETH Health Trading S.C (Ethiopia); Kedumetse Liphi of Ked-LiphiBw (Botswana); Ernest Mongezi Majenge of The Wheelchair Doctor (South Africa); and Joan Rukundo Nalubega of Uganics Repellents Ltd (Uganda).

$5,000 grants were awarded to Eunice Adewale of Smokeless Briqs Energy Solutions (Nigeria); Henry Danwawo Lamba of Schrödinger Technologie Ltd (Nigeria); Johnson Obute of Maximus Recycling Solutions (Nigeria); Abraham Ugbenja Iborchan of PureLube Limited (Ghana); and Brian Okeyo of Nawiri Organics (Kenya). The $1,000 grant recipients include Jide Ayegbusi of EdGo Technology Ltd (Nigeria); David Ssembajjwe of Camelot Agroecology Farm Ltd (Uganda); Mojola Ola of Gridcrux Energy Solutions (Nigeria); Abiodun Quadri of Zerosmoke Ventures (Nigeria); and Fasanya Samuel Akinpelumi of Poshfil Polish Products Ltd (Nigeria).

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