20 African Entrepreneur Support Organisations Join Village Capital Project

Small Foundation and Village Capital have chosen 20 African entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) that work with rural-impacting businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa to participate in the Rural Impacting Entrepreneurship research project, which aims to identify gaps and solutions to deepen impact within the rural business ecosystem and develop a thriving support community.

Small Foundation and Village Capital created the Rural Impacting Entrepreneurship project to gain a better understanding of the continent’s rural-impacting ESO ecosystem. Village Capital has spent the last few months reviewing the landscape of ESOs supporting rural-impacting enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa to identify the various types of support they offer and their effectiveness in order to draw insights into how these ESOs can better support such enterprises.

“The Sub-Saharan African Rural-Impacting Enterprise Support Ecosystem is fragmented, with many actors operating in different communities, supporting ventures at various levels.” We are able to identify where and how to most effectively focus their support efforts by working with ESOs across the region, and provide capacity-building training and customisable tools for their effective programming and the benefit of the ecosystem as a whole,” said Brenda Wangari, Village Capital’s senior programme manager for Africa.

After reviewing over 180 ESOs from 30 countries in the region, 20 were chosen for the final cohort. Village Capital will collaborate closely with these organizations to review their interventions, as well as provide training and access to Village Capital’s Abaca App Supporter Package, which includes access to a customized ESO diagnostic tool to track performance and personalised support from the Village Capital team.

Here are the ESOs that were chosen:

• Agri Frontier East Africa Limited [Kenya] – an agri investment and agri-business advisory firm specialised in helping create world class farming and integrated agribusinesses across the value chain, with a focus on frontier markets, particularly Africa.
• Anza Entrepreneurs [Tanzania] – an accelerator, network of co-working spaces, and growth fund that provides capital leases to entrepreneurs.
• BAYI Foundation [Nigeria] – a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation established to build and support sustainable social and economic growth in underserved communities by supporting small businesses.
• BongoHive [Zambia] – supports entrepreneurs and startups through the entrepreneurial journey, from idea generation to delivering new products to market through different programs, innovation consulting, and provision co-working space.
• Burundi Business Incubator [Burundi] – the first incubator in Burundi. It primarily focuses on building entrepreneurship skills among youth and a systems-level hypothesis to build an agriculture value chain that impacts SMEs.
• Center for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CIPMEN) [Niger] – the first business incubator in Niger and one of the largest in West Africa.
• Community Women Enterprise Network Uganda Limited (CWEN) [Uganda] – a network of women entrepreneurs that aims to reinforce the capacity of their members to become more productive, gain a larger market share and grow their businesses.
• DoniLab [Mali] – the first incubator and support structure for innovative entrepreneurship in Mali. Since 2015, they have supported Malians in entrepreneurship through acceleration, mentorship and a co-working space.
• El-Kanis and Partners [Nigeria] – harnesses climate-smart agriculture and leverages technology to increase the production of staple food crops in Nigeria.
• Goldstone Enterprise Consulting and Training [Uganda] – a multi-sectoral enterprise consulting and training firm based in Kampala, Uganda. It has provided services to clients in the NGO, impact investment, and private sectors since 2012.
• Imagine Her (IH) [Uganda] – works with communities to accelerate the power and potential of women, girls, and youth as active leaders and social entrepreneurs who create sustainable solutions within their communities.
• Innohub Limited [Ghana] – a business accelerator, management consulting, and impact investment platform that supports small and growing businesses to become investment ready and matches them to the capital needed for growth.
• Innovation SL [Sierra Leone] – established in 2017, Innovation SL runs the Freetown Pitch Night, Innovations Axis Ltd (an incubator/accelerator and co-working space), and is the Global Entrepreneurship Network affiliate in Sierra Leone.
• Intelli-Wealth Limited [Kenya] – an Agribusiness Consultancy Company established in 2016 to provide advisory services to the agricultural sector in Africa.
• PearlMutual Consulting Ltd [Nigeria] – offers services in financial advisory, capital raising, and corporate training. It started operations in 2012 in Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria.
• Smart Regional Consultants Ltd (SRC) [Kenya] – a private sector company working with local and international organizations that are affiliated with SMEs.
• Tradeline Consult [Ghana], Finance Factory (FIFACT) – a flagship programme of Tradeline Consult designed to ensure micro and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in different sectors have access to accounting and development services at their own convenience.
• Pepea Capital (formerly Winam) [Kenya] – a pioneer pan-regional Sustainable Finance marketplace for MSMEs and Investors across Africa.
• WYLDE International [Kenya] – a strategy and entrepreneurship firm that equips and empowers entrepreneurs and their support institutions to succeed.

Yeesal Agri Hub [Senegal] – the first Agritech hub in West Africa. Yeesal Agri Hub was created by a group of young experts in agriculture with different profiles and skills.