The Global South’s largest convening on impact entrepreneurship and sustainable development, the Sankalp Summit, has held its 1st edition of the Sankalp West Africa Summit in Accra.
Every year, the Summit recognises and rewards high impact enterprises from a pool of promising finalists in the Africa region which are tackling key development challenges. The finalists also get an opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury panel comprising eminent business leaders and investors.
This year, the winners were four most-innovative young entrepreneurs in West Africa, whose ideas are well-poised to deliver significant impact outcomes while 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 start-up 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 sensitisation 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 provide smallholder farmers with decision-support and access to tools and resources that optimise their productivity and incomes.
The Second Runner-Up was ShaQ Express, Ghana’s first superapp – a tech company addressing 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 – recipient of the ‘Sankalp Ecosystem Award’ – is decided through a voting process from practitioners of 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 cutting-edge innovation of our winners – each of whom demonstrate an 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 Centre, witnessed over 300 change-makers from the West Africa region.
