Sahara Impact Fund (SIF)
SAHARA IMPACT FUND
Empowering Africa’s Changemakers with Skills, Tools, Networks, and up to $30,000 to Scale their Dreams!
In 2020, Sahara Group Foundation launched the Sahara Impact Fund (SIF) Fellowship programme, through a strategic partnership between Sahara Group Foundation, LEAP Africa, and Impact Investment Foundation.
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 Journey So Far
The 3rd cohort of the programme gave grants of $5,000 each to ten (10) outstanding Fellows at the end of the six-month programme. Including incremental funding access based on impact, reach, and sustainability matrices targeted at supporting young social entrepreneurs in Africa.
Now advancing into its fourth cohort, the program provides outstanding Fellows with seed funding of up to $30,000 upon successful completion of the intensive three-month fellowship following critically mapped milestones.
These milestones aligned with clearly defined impact, scalability, and sustainability metrics – reinforcing the program’s commitment to fostering a robust pipeline of high-impact social entrepreneurs across the African continent.
Program Overview
The Sahara Impact Fund (SIF) is a hybrid accelerator program that identifies, equips, and positions African social enterprises for investment readiness, grant funding, and long-term sustainability. Designed to scale innovative solutions to pressing community challenges, the program blends strategic grant capital, tailored mentorship, and business advisory support, bridging the gap between impactful innovation and sustainable funding opportunities.
The SIF project was created with a vision to support young people by providing an enabling environment for the development of self-sustaining businesses, with a focus on wealth creation and preservation. This is achieved through the support of a strong network of committed stakeholders. The program offers a comprehensive ecosystem of subject matter experts who guide participants through the foundational elements of building a successful enterprise. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to access funding from a pool of $200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Dollars), following a rigorous shortlisting and evaluation process conducted by the Sahara Group Foundation Jury.
TIMELINE
Activity Line-Up
1 July 2025
Launch of Application Form
1 July - 31 August 2025
Submission of Entries
31 August 2025
Deadline for Submission of Entries
1 - 13 September 2025
Screening of Submissions
27 September 2025
Announcement of Successful EXTRApreneurs (Fellows)
29 September - 10 October 2025
Visit of Successful EXTRApreneurs (Fellows)
24 October 2025
Announcement of the Final EXTRApreneurs (Fellows)
3 - 16 November 2025
MADAA Advisory Bootcamp (Mentorship & Support)
20 November 2025
Close Out Event
Objectives of SIF
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.
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?
Profitability
Is the solution commercially viable and profitable?
VALUE PROPOSITION
Backing Big Ideas to Scale and Succeed.
- Grant of up to $30,000.
- Go-to-market support.
- Legal Support (intellectual property, patenting, etc).
- Business Advisory.
- Brand Management Support.
The objective is to provide all of the above, which is worth over $100,000,000 to ensure the selected innovators, researchers, inventors, and entrepreneurs build their ideas or solutions into successful businesses that will grow, scale, and thrive.
