The Global South’s largest convening on impact entrepreneurship and sustainable development, the Sankalp Summit held the 1st Edition of the Sankalp West Africa Summit in Accra Ghana on the 12-13th of June at the UPSA Auditorium.
Every year, the Summit recognizes and rewards high-impact enterprises from a pool of promising finalists, in the African region which are tackling key development challenges. The finalists also get the opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury panel comprising eminent business leaders and investors.
This year the winners were the four most innovative young entrepreneurs in West Africa, whose ideas are well poised to deliver significant impact outcomes, whilst solving some of the most complex social challenges. The 10 outstanding finalist impact enterprises representing the West Africa region were Agriculture startups – Alcoford Corporation from Togo, Green Afro Palms from Ghana, Kitovu Technology, Farm Corps and Simkay Foods, from Nigeria, Clean Energy startups ShaQ Express and Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd from Ghana, Healthcare startup Drug-It Solutions from Nigeria and Circular Economy startup Pad Up Creations from Nigeria.
The Sankalp West Africa Awards 2023 Winner was Green Afro-Palms from Ghana, an agricultural startup engaged in the business of oil palm farming and processing. They also pay it forward through farmer sensitization aimed at promoting environmentally sustainable oil palm farming.
The First Runner Up was Kitovu Technology from Nigeria. An agri startup, they build climate-smart farming and post-harvest infrastructure for African agriculture, which provides smallholder farmers with decision support and access to tools and resources that optimize their productivity and incomes.
The Second Runner Up was ShaQ Express, Ghana’s first superapp. A tech company addressing the evolving needs and challenges in the e-commerce and logistics industry their mission is to connect packages to people.
In a unique format the Fourth Winner, called as the ‘Sankalp Ecosystem Award’ is given through a voting process from practitioners from the developmental ecosystem. This year the winner was Pad-Up Creation from Nigeria, a circular economy startup that manufactures and produces washable and reusable sanitary pads as a sustainable solution for women and girls in Africa, thereby showing how innovation coupled with intent can significantly impact and deliver on sustainability and social good.
“The Sankalp West Africa Awards 2023 has truly been an enriching experience when it comes to meeting hundreds of impact enterprises whose business promise and potential is crucial to solving economic and development challenges in the region. There is tremendous appetite for growth amongst startups here and we are inspired by the ideas and the cutting edge innovation of our winners, each of whom demonstrate the ability to drive action, catalyse collaborations and influence positive outcomes,” said Arielle Molino, Sankalp Lead and AVP Intellecap Africa
The Summit, supported by Visa Foundation, IDRC, Siemens, AFEX, Energy Catalyst and Miller Center, witnessed over 300 change makers from the West Africa Region.
About Sankalp Forum:
Sankalp Forum was initiated in India in 2009 by Intellecap, part of the Aavishkaar Group, to create a thriving ecosystem for business-led inclusive development. Over the past 15 years, Sankalp has built one of the world’s largest impact enterprise-focused platforms that has showcased and discovered 2000+ entrepreneurs, through 31 editions and has connected them to 1000+ investors. Sankalp has enabled enterprises and entrepreneurs and has helped raise over USD 800 million in funding and disbursed over USD 1.2 million in cash grants. Sankalp Forum engages with Governments, Corporations, influential platforms like the G8 and G20, media and civil society to drive a paradigm shift in inclusive development approaches. For more details please visit, www.sankalpforum.com
About Intellecap:
Intellecap a part of the Aavishkaar Group is a pioneer in building enabling ecosystems and channelling capital to create and nurture a sustainable & equitable society. Founded in 2002, Intellecap works across critical sectors like Agriculture, Livelihoods, Climate Change, Clean Energy, Financial Services, Gender & Inclusion, Healthcare, Water and Sanitation, and has delivered over 700 global engagements across 60+ countries and syndicated investments of over $1.1 Billion USD in Capital. Intellecap through its presence in India and Africa provides a broad range of Consulting, Research and Investment Banking Services, to Multilateral Agencies, Development Finance Institutions, Social Enterprises, Corporations, Investors, Policy Makers and Donors. Our common action platform, Sankalp Forum, one of the largest global inclusive development platforms, brings together the ecosystem to shape the way markets work for delivering the SDGs 2030. Select clients of Intellecap include the USAID, World Bank, Ford Foundation, The Hans Foundation, Doen Foundation, GIZ, DFID, Hindustan Unilever, P&G, International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. For more details please visit, www.intellecap.com
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