The winners
were selected from a highly competitive pool of hundreds of applicants from
across Africa
Launched in April 2013 at
the Africa Impact Investing Forum supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and
the Tony Elumelu Foundation, IEIF provides grant capital for entrepreneurs with
projects that create jobs in underserved sectors, and supports proposals geared
toward enabling capital solutions, fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems and
promoting impact investing industry infrastructure.
Funded by the Rockefeller
Foundation and the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the winners were selected from a
highly competitive pool of hundreds of applicants from across Africa, and
represented several sectors across the continent including Finance,
Agriculture, Policy & Research and Information Technology.
Administered by the Global
Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the rigorous selection process was undertaken
by a committee which included Malik Fal, Managing Director of Omidyar Network
Africa; Emmanuel N. Nnorom who was at the time, CEO of UBA Africa and currently
the President of Heirs Holdings Group; Amit Bouri, Managing Director of the Global
Impact Investing Network; Eme Essien Lore, Senior Associate Director at the
Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office,; and Dr. Wiebe Boer, CEO of the
Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Making the list of winning
applications were Investisseurs & Partenaires (Senegal), Renew LLC
(Ethiopia), M.Lab Africa (Kenya), Policy and Economic Research Council
(Tanzania), Doreo Partners (Nigeria), GIMPA Centre for Impact Investing
(Ghana) and SliceBiz (Ghana).
The vision for the winners
is to enable through their various projects, opportunities for additional
entrepreneurship activities across Africa to thrive. “The winners were selected
for their work in bridging the gap between African businesses and financing
options. We, at the Foundation are excited to be part of the process of
supporting interventions that contribute to sustained economic development
across the continent.” Dr. Wiebe Boer, explained
Upon receipt of the grant,
several winners expressed renewed commitment to providing support services to
their stakeholders with the additional supporting resources at their disposal.
"The IEIF grant will
assist us to augment our portfolio of services with improved interventions for
social enterprises and enable us increase the potential for success for
start-ups that go through our incubation program." said John Kieti of
M.Lab, the grant winner from Kenya.
"Thanks to this
funding, we can now focus on our core mission of creating alternative finance
pathways for the next generation of African Start-ups through a micro-investment
platform. This funding is by far our most remarkable opportunity to date and we
intend to fully leverage the advantages to deliver some key outcomes for the
Ghanaian and African start-up ecosystem,” added William Senyo the CEO of
SliceBiz, one of the winners from Ghana.
Eme Essien Lore, Senior
Associate Director at the Rockefeller Foundation, Africa Regional Office
expressed enthusiasm for IEIF’s contributions to the global network of global
investors. “The business ideas we received through the IEIF reflect the
extensive entrepreneurial potential that exists in Africa. Our Foundation
continues to believe that impact investing can transform the development
landscape across the continent and we welcome opportunities such as the IEIF to
prove that.”
The Global Impact Investing
Network (GIIN) will play an administrative role to manage the IEIF on behalf of
the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
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