Lead Africa International, with Ministry of Baden-Wittenberg, in Germany Donate €100,000 euros Grant to Selected AfricanStartUps

Lead Africa International, in conjunction with Ministry of Baden-Wittenberg, in Germany and the Foundation for Development Corporation, SEZ, held its maiden event tagged StartupAfrika, with a seed grant of €100,000 euros to selected 20 African Indigenous and innovative entrepreneurs.

The 3 days event was occasioned virtually and real time simultaneously, where the selected Startups with innovative invention had the opportunity to pitch their business modules, state their problem and solution to the panelist.

StartupAfrika maiden edition, had a total of 439 applicants across African countries, who applied for the grants, while about 30 startups was selected and the criteria for the selection of qualified finalist, was based on a mandatory attendant of the 3 days events.

The Startups were selected from different African countries e.g. Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Liberia and Nigeria etc., while Nigerian applicants were live at the event, as the 3 days Hybrid event was hosted in Lagos, Nigeria, at Radisson Hotel, from Tuesday July 27th and concluded on Thursday 29th, 2021.

StartupsAfrika initiative showcases some of Africa’s top social entrepreneurs and pioneers in diverse fields such as, agro-tech, medicine, food preservation, environmental green energy, education, information and technology etc., while creating prototype solutions to help Africa solve its critical challenges locally.

The selected StartupAfrika winners will be funded, while others will be provided with infrastructural development input, training, machines aid and mentorship.

During an interview with LagosspyNG correspondent, Mr. Timi Olanrewaju, Founder and Executive Director for Lead Africa International, “StartupAfrika is a project designed to reach out to startups, especially in Africa where there are laudable ideas and business plans but are most times handicap owing to obvious factors limiting them from growing.

“Our own interest is to help startups in Africa grow and ultimately create employment. This is our stand to people in Europe. It is not enough to just send aids to Africa.

“We need to get people that are trying to make something for themselves to grow so that in that process, they will be able to hand over jobs to other people. Even if it is going to be at the lower level, it will keep people off the street and will also stop some from doing things that are against the law.”

He added, that any of the startups that come through from the selection process, Lead Africa and its partners will follow him up with training and mentoring, stressing that the seed grants will come in batches to the winners because the sponsors need some level of control on how the money will be invested into the startup business and curb excesses.

According to ‘Timi, the money is not equity from the government of Wurttemberg; rather, it is a seed grant. He argued that there is a need to monitor it as the idea behind the grant is to grow people and businesses in Africa, while their success story would be the motivation and repayment so the sponsor can expand the seed grants to others while the successful startups will also improve the lives of their immediately environment whereby, they will be creating employment and increase its country gross domestic productivity rating directly or indirectly.

Ms. Lena Wimmer, Business Development & Strategy SEZ noted that, the StartupAfrika idea was initiated with Lead Africa to create a partnership with Startups in Africa, stressing that ideas and business opportunities exist in Nigeria and indeed, the Africa continent.

“We believe that startups can play a key role to create a social and ecologically transformed economy in Africa. This is what is needed to accomplish the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and the agenda 2063 of the Africa Union.”

She reiterated that selected startups stand a chance to win and secure a seed grant of up to €10,000 euros. Ms. Lena believes that startups play a key role in economic growth, as they create more jobs which means more employment and consequently leads to an improved economy.

In addition, Philip Keil, managing director of Baden-Württemberg Development Corporation Foundation (SEZ), said that startups can play key role to create a social and ecologically transformed economy in Africa and Baden-Württemberg.

In conclusion, Mr. ‘Timi said, StartUpAfrika is a program designed to support innovative startups through intercontinental exchange and network plus funding and the state of Baden-Württemberg has set out to expand partnerships with counterparts on the African continent.

Noting that, Africa is an export-driven regions while they intend to promote sustainable ideas, Startups and create innovative partnerships so as to play a key role in developing and mitigating the challenges affecting the growth of African entrepreneurs.

“The Foundation of Development Cooperation has gained some experience in social entrepreneurship. It believes that a common future gets accomplished through partnerships, goal 17 of the SDGs, and through collaborative work and network.” ‘Timi concluded.