The VA Pod

In Africa, social enterprises are driving development by blending profit with social good. They are proving that businesses can be inclusive and financially powerful engines for change. Yet, their dual nature presents challenges in securing resources for growth and job creation. According to the British Council, the estimate for the number of jobs directly created by social enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) ranges from 28 million to 41 million.

In this podcast, adapted for our LinkedIn Audio Event held on the 18th of December, 2023, Zemmy Momoh, Director, CSR & Social Impact Programming, Channels Media Group and Oluwatosin Ogunjuyigbe, Staff Writer at Ventures Africa, discuss “The importance of social enterprise to Africa's growth”.

Africa is the hardest hit by climate change. According to the World Meteorological Organization, Africa is suffering disproportionately from the climate change crisis, even though it contributes only a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the Sterling One Foundation has partnered with Microsoft Nigeria, Sterling Bank, The Sun Media, Oando Foundation, Coca-Cola, and other esteemed private sector organizations to initiate a workshop to transform the Nigerian media landscape. The primary objective is to empower media professionals to amplify the urgency of the climate change crisis through their reporting. The Sterling One Foundation is dedicated to advancing sustainable development and environmental stewardship across Africa.

From the 17th to the 21st of September, 2023, Nigeria hosted the maiden edition of the Inspire Africa Conference. Innovate Africa Foundation organised the event for people in the product space to empower the product community in Africa.

The event was held at Eko Convention Centre Lagos. It had over 1000 product leaders in attendance from more than 30 African countries with at least six partners at Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG), who coached, trained, and advised the vibrant product community in attendance. 

In this podcast, we speak to Christian Idiodi- a Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group- to solve complex, recognized problems; Rebecca King, co-founder at Innovate Africa; Kenechukwu Nwankwo, Senior Product Manager at Mono; and Olatunde Adejumo, Head, Product Management, Inclusio Business at Interswitch.

Producer:

Ishioma Imokhai-Bello.

Editors: Ishioma Imokhai-Bello & Hadassah Egbedi.

These 20 semi-finalists were chosen from 27,000 applicants and one thing they all share in common is the ability to drive impact as well as making profits in the various markets they are operating in. From Ghana’s Sommalife Limited to Zambia’s Good Nature Agro and Egypt’s iSpark, here are some impact stories from some of these entrepreneurs.

This podcast was adapted from our LinkedIn audio event titled, Seems like the right time for Nigeria to invest in renewable energy. Given the ongoing global conversation around the energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy, we deemed it fit to bring on board two industry experts in Nigeria to hold this conversation. They include Chibunna Ogbonna, co-Founder and CEO of Kiru Energy Limited and Lolade Alonge, Business Communication officer and project manager at Koolbooks. The conversation was hosted by Oluwatosin Ogunjuyigbe, Staff Writer at Ventures Africa.