Sahara Group Foundation has awarded over $130,000 to 20 African ‘EXTRApreneurs’.

Chidilim Menakaya, director of Sahara Group Foundation, disclosed this during the awards presentation at a gala on Wednesday in Lagos.

Ms Menakaya noted that for nearly two decades, the foundation has served as a catalyst for sustainable development across Africa, investing in programmes that promote entrepreneurship, environmental stewardship, innovation, and community transformation.

She explained that the 2025 editions of the SIF and MADAA programmes were redesigned based on 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,” she said.

Ms Menakaya stated, “By reinventing the Sahara Impact Fund and elevating the MADAA programme, we are closing the loop between discovery, support, and scale.

“These enhancements reflect our commitment to identifying high-potential changemakers, equipping them with the right skills, and creating real pathways for them to build 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.”

David Ayinde, programme supervisor at the foundation, added, “Our focus goes beyond disbursing grants.

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

Charging the awardees to embrace resilience, discipline, and innovation, Kola Adesina, executive director of Sahara Group, said these attributes would enable them to achieve transformative impact across the continent, with the added incentive of scaling their businesses for global competitiveness.

Ade Odunsi, executive director of Sahara Group, said that the 2025 programme cycle attracted no fewer than 2,000 applications from across Africa, reflecting the depth of innovation on the continent. He said a rigorous selection process shortlisted about 300 innovators for an intensive capacity-building workshop delivered by Sahara Group experts.

He added that the sessions covered business strategy and sustainability, governance and regulatory compliance, brand positioning and communications, commercial and stakeholder management, as well as legal, financial, and tax advisory processes.

He said that 20 high-potential EXTRApreneurs were selected for the Business Advisory Bootcamp and the Sahara M.A.D Den in Lagos, where they received grants for their businesses.

The $10,000 grant recipients 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); 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).

Also, recipients of the $5,000 grants include 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 are 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).

(NAN)