Sahara Group Foundation Awards $130,000 to 20 African Innovative Extrapreneurs

Peter Uzoho

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

Extrapreneurship is a developing concept that broadly refers to driving innovation by leveraging external collaboration and resources. It extends the traditional ideas of entrepreneurship (starting a new venture) and intrapreneurship (innovating within an existing company).

The awards were presented to the beneficiaries at the Foundation’s gala & award night held in Lagos, tagged, “A Night of Orchestral Conversations, Golden Moments, and the Quiet Magic That Happens When Brilliance Gathers Under One Roof”.

For nearly two decades, the 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,” Programme Supervisor, Sahara Group Foundation, David Ayinde, said during the Awards and Gala Night.

In her remarks, Director, Sahara Group Foundation, Chidilim Menakaya, said: “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,”

She noted that these enhancements reflect the foundation’s 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”,
Menakaya.

Charging the awardees to embrace resilience, discipline, and innovation in their businesses, Executive Director, Sahara Group,
Dr Kola Adesina, said these attributes will help African Extrapreneurs achieve “transformative impact across the continent with the added incentive of scaling their businesses for global competitiveness.”

Also speaking, Executive Director, Sahara Group, Ade Odunsi, 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 included 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 included 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).