Deadline: 31st August 2025
The Sahara Impact Fund (SIF) is designed to empower young African changemakers, innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs with the right support, a growth-oriented mindset, and the necessary tools to establish and scale sustainable businesses, all geared towards attaining the SDGs in a manner that results in measurable social impact.
The primary purpose of the SIF programme is to encourage and support the generation of ideas and solutions which will help to increase the Sahara Group Foundation’s mandate of Building Sustainable Communities and mobilise the right support for tangible partnerships towards achieving the SDGs in a way that results in measurable social impact.
Through this transformative initiative, SIF is equipping participants with the skills, tools, and networks needed to scale their impact-driven and sustainable businesses.
The objective of the SIF project is to support and scale up high-impact social enterprises and changemakers across Africa. The core objectives of the project are to:
- Support Innovative Social Entrepreneurs: Identify, provide business advisory services, and fund early- and growth-stage social enterprises that address pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges within their communities.
- Promote Sustainable Development: Drive progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by investing in scalable solutions that create lasting impact.
- Foster Youth-Led Innovation, Facilitate Mentorship and Peer Learning: Encourage and empower young African innovators and changemakers by providing them with the resources, mentorship, and exposure they need to grow their ventures and amplify their impact by learning from one another.
- Build Strong Community Partnerships: Strengthen the social enterprise ecosystem through partnerships and collaboration between social entrepreneurs, the private sector, and government stakeholders to co-create solutions that improve quality of life and community resilience.
- Institutionalise Social Impact Thinking: Promote a culture of social responsibility, sustainability, and innovation within communities and across sectors by showcasing and scaling successful social enterprise models.
- Accelerate Impact Through Capacity Building by Subject Matter Experts: Provide tailored advisory services, mentorship, and networking opportunities to enhance the operational, financial, and leadership capacities of participating enterprises.
Benefits
- Grant of up to $30,000.
- Go-to-market support.
- Legal Support (intellectual property, patenting, etc).
- Business Advisory.
- Brand Management Support.
Selection Criteria
Underlisted are the elements to be considered before a solution is selected:
- Relevance – What problem does the solution address, who is affected, and how urgent is it? What are the broader impacts on people and the environment, and what are the risks of not acting now?
- Innovation – Is the solution a novel (never seen before) and an extraordinary idea or is it an improvement on an existing solution? If it is an improvement on an existing solution, what is unique to this solution?
- Impact – How wide and deep will the impact of this solution be?
- Scalable – How scalable is the solution? Is there a ready market for it? Is it easily replicable in other climes?