Senegal’s Investisseurs & Partenaires, 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) have been announced as the winners of the Africa Impact Economy Innovations Fund (IEIF), an endowment supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Tony Elumelu Foundation to provide grant capital for entrepreneurs with projects that create jobs.
The fund, which was launched in April 2013 at the Africa Impact Investing Forum, also provide support to proposals geared toward enabling capital solutions, fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems and promoting impact investing industry infrastructure.
According to a statement released by the company, the winners were selected from a highly competitive pool applicants from across Africa, and represented several sectors including Finance, Agriculture, Policy & Research and Information Technology.
They were picked by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) who will play an administrative role to manage the IEIF on behalf of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Eme Essien Lore, Senior Associate Director at the Rockefeller Foundation, Africa Regional Office confirmed that the business ideas received through the IEIF reflect the extensive entrepreneurial potential that exists in Africa.
“The winners were selected for their work in bridging the gap between African businesses and financing options,” CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Dr. Wiebe Boer added.
Boer who is also part of the GIIN committee said the Foundation(s) are excited to be part of the process of supporting interventions that contribute to sustained economic development across the continent.
Meanwhile, winners of the grant expressed renewed commitment to providing support services to stakeholders with the additional 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,” grant winner, John Kieti of M.Lab, Kenya said.
“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,” William Senyo the CEO of SliceBiz, another winner from Ghana added.
