With a focus on increasing access to energy and promoting sustainable environments, the Sahara Impact Fund program attracted over 300 applications from 19 African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Sahara Impact Fund Fellowship program which was launched in 2020 aims to empower visionary African changemakers with the knowledge and resources required to expand their social enterprises and help address the environmental and social challenges affecting our society.

Speaking at the induction ceremony of the new Fellows, Ejiro Gray, Director, Sahara Group Foundation stated that “We are thrilled to kick off the third Cohort of our Sahara Impact Fund Fellowship programme with this new set of inspiring social entrepreneurs and innovators who are committed to accelerating Africa’s development with their bold and innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit”.

In her congratulatory message to the twenty inducted Fellows, Ejiro Gray commended the Fellows for choosing to create business models that support the growth of our society.  She asked them to take advantage of the Fellowship courses, workshop, mentorship, peer support, and networking opportunities, to build themselves and their social enterprises, to deliver widespread sustainable impact.

This year’s Sahara Impact Fund Fellows include, from Nigeria, Stanley Anigbogu, Oluwaseyi Moejoh, Kehinde Fashola, Emmanuella Azegba, Muideen Adegoke, Chidozie Igweilo, Joshua Attat, Osato El- Osemwingie, and Paul Nnaluo.

Others include Patience Alifo(Ghana), Philipo kitungano(Tanzania), Erick Mbeva(Kenya), Joyce Rugano(Kenya), Jolis Nduwimana(Burundi), Kachigo Zulu(Zambia), Andrew Mpashi(Zambia), Timothy Munthali(Malawi), Ainomugisha Shifira(Uganda), Tukwatanise Bonnita(Uganda) and Muofhe Ratshikombo(South Africa).

In her remarks to the newly inducted Fellows, the Executive Director, LEAP Africa, Kehinde Ayeni, stated;

“that the most promising leaders are those who dare to challenge the status quo and envision a brighter future for the African continent”.

She congratulated the Fellows for coming out successfully following a competitive application process and challenged them to leverage the Fellowship towards shaping Africa’s future.

Also addressing the Fellows at the induction ceremony was Nnamdi Ehirim, Project Associate, Impact Amplifiers. Ehirim congratulated the new Fellows and urged them to immerse themselves in the Fellowship, as it possesses the potential to transform their mindsets positively and equip them with the proven methodologies required to help strengthen their business models.

The Sahara Impact Fund Fellowship programme exposes Fellows to capacity building and investment readiness modules that support business expansion and allows them to create sustainable impact in society.  

The programme is also set up to reward outstanding Fellows at the end of the Fellowship with a seed funding of $5000. This financial investment was created to support the social innovators with the resources they require to scale their business model.

Sahara Group Foundation is fully committed to building sustainable societies and through strategic interventions and programmes, we are helping to impact lives and livelihoods across borders.  

The CBN claims that the bank’s customers’ behavior violates its foreign exchange policy guidelines.

This was said by the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, during a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The CBN would impose a “Post No Debit” on the account(s) of any client breaking its guidelines, Emefiele warned.

“As far as we are concerned, we monitor liquidity in the subsystem. We will use our powers to mop up cash for those taking money from banks to buy Dollars. It is illegal to do so. If the security agencies hold you, you will know the implication of that.

“We are monitoring customers and banks, any banks involved will be sanctioned. We will place Post no Debit on the defaulting customer’s account.

It is a very injurious tool to stop you from conducting illegal flows, either domestic or foreign currency.

“We will conduct investigations, and we will have proof that you will not be able to conduct transactions in any Nigerian bank.”

This is coming at the backdrop of the recent revelation that the Commission has committed more than N500 million in funding research across the Nigerian universities.

Akande told a gathering of vice chancellors and professors from universities in the southern parts of the country at a roundtable conference at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, that the Commission acknowledges the importance of working with stakeholders to engender innovations and build indigenous technological capabilities that would strengthen the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ecosystem.

“We want to use this opportunity to assure you that the Commission will continue to give support to the educational sector in the interest of national development. We will also continue to encourage research and innovation in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions,” Akande said, explaining that the essence of the roundtable was to dialogue with the academia, industry and other stakeholders on how research efforts and prottotypes can be transformed into commercially-viable products that solve real-life problems.

“Consequently, the Commission will continue to allocate the requisite resources to research, development and innovations necessary for the industry to continue to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country,” Akande said.

Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, represented by the Director, Legal and Regulatory Services of the Commission, Josphine Amuwa, said academia is a key driver of innovation in all spheres of human endeavour.

He said this is why his leadership at the Commission is determined to not only give grants to the academia but also support the commercialisation of the prototypes developed to deepen the indigenous technological capabilities which would support the overall development of the industry.

NCC Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Ubale Maska, who was represented by Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity at the Commission, Bako Wakil, revealed that the Commission had, so far, awarded a total of 49 telecom-based research grants to the academia out of which 10 prototypes have been successfully developed.

“We are hopeful that these sessions will culminate in the development of common framework that would facilitate the commercialisation of the existing prototypes and future research outcomes (prototypes) for the benefit of the economy and the industry,” he stated.

Coming shortly after a similar roundtable in Kano for the northern region, the event organised by the Research prototypes and Development R&D Department of the Commission, was aimed at bringing together Resources persons, business savvy industry experts, the academia, relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), entrepreneurs and renowned individuals who have successfully commercialised their inventions to brainstorm on the way forward for research output commercialisation.