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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
In a bid to expand their businesses and workforce, Nigerian entrepreneurs have been advised to apply for the Africa’s Business Heroes grant before May 12th, 2023.
Senior Partnerships Manager, AfriLabs, Felista Aku, who spoke during an informative session with entrepreneurs, yesterday in Abuja, explained that since 2019, 40 African entrepreneurs have benefited from the Africa’s Business Heroes initiative.
Aku explained that each year, over 20,000 applications are received across the African continent, but noted that the selection process is always transparent with the employment of independent judges.
She said “Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) is a charitable initiative sponsored by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Philanthropy to support African entrepreneurs (start-ups founders or co-founders), who are making a difference in their communities through grant funding, training and mentorship.
Each year the top 10 outstanding entrepreneurs are awarded with a grant totalling to 1.5 million USD. The Winner receives $300,000, the 1st Runner up gets $250,000, 2nd Runner Up gets $150,000 and the 7 other Top 10 finalists each receives $100,000 and the remaining $100,000 is split among all finalists for training programs making each get 10,000 additional cash.
“The programme started in 2019 and still on until it makes 10 years. Each year, 10 heroes will be selected to benefit from this fund.” She added.
So far, the ABH https://africabusinessheroes.org/en/ grant initiative has seen more than 72,000 participants from 2019 to 2022. 40 former top 10 ABH finalists have won grant funding totalling up to US$6 million, and all entrepreneurs who made it to the top 50 have benefited from invaluable entrepreneurship training, networking and mentorship opportunities.
Nigeria has had the largest number of winners out of all 54 African countries since ABH initial edition in 2019 to date, making 8 Top 10 finalists who have won grant funding totalling to over US $1,185,000 (equivalent to over 545 million Nigerian Naira); on top of many participants who didn’t make it to the finals but equally benefited from the entrepreneurship training, networking and pan-African publicity.
“The ABH prize competition have this basic selection criteria: One, the business must be founded by an African, African living in Africa. Also, the business must be registered and would have been in operation for at least 3 years for the owner to be eligible.” Remarked Aku.
“In addition, the business has to be impactful, solving real life challenges. Application for this year started and has been open since March and will be closing on the 12th of May.”
“Every entrepreneur is encouraged to put in an application. They do not need to wait till the last minute. Every year, we get between over 20,000 applications from all 54 countries across Africa. So far, we have had winners from 15 countries including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, among others.” She added.
The ABH grant is entirely free, it is aimed at helping the African community by providing the much-needed funding to support the growth and development of small and medium-sized businesses not only in Nigeria but across Africa.
She said that ABH’s goal is to help the start-ups grow. One start-up’s biggest need could be to buy machinery, for another, it could be to expand their staff strength.
“This information session was really insightful for Nigerian start-ups. I want to encourage start-ups who fit into the criteria to apply and not be intimidated by the number of applications that we receive.” Emphasized Aku.
ABH prize competition esteemed judges are carefully selected and free from any biases. This year, ABH will bring in more industry veterans as mentors, trainers, and judges to further support our contestants on their ABH journey.
This event is an ABH information session in which AfriLabs in partnership with Africa’s Business Heroes wanted to bring together start-ups founders in Nigeria who are interested in learning more about the ABH grant to be briefed and given an opportunity to ask any questions or seek any guidance on how best they can apply to the competition before the deadline (May 12th).
Rahel Chukwu, who is the Operations and Human Resources Manager, AfriLabs, said it would be a disservice for Nigerians to ignore the initiative.
Our reporter also interacted with one of the ABH former winners from Nigeria Mr Chibuzo Opara, co-founder of DrugStoc (ABH 2019 Top 10 finalist) who remarked that to win the Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition you must understand the rigorous process it entails.
“It shows the authenticity of this initiative and showcases African innovations across the globe.” Said Chibuzo.
“You get to understand the rigorous process you have to go through to be able to achieve this which is actually good. It shows the authenticity of this initiative and being able to showcase African entrepreneurs across the globe.”
