By Alfred Otieno Ogola
The Inaugural Acumen Fund East Africa Fellows programme has been launched featuring 20 of the region’s top business innovators in the field of Social change development.
Drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, the fellows will receive high-quality training in leadership and social change development, geared towards building a community of future leaders who will address the needs of their own communities.
“The aim for the East African Fellows programme is to harness the power of social innovation in creating solutions to the region’s most pressing problems. Though hundreds of NGOs exist in East Africa, pumping millions of dollars in foreign assistance each year, people are still living in and dying of poverty”, said Jacqueline Novogratz the Founder and Global Chief Executive of Acumen Fund, based in New York.
Novograts explained that real change and development in East Africa, would only come through a radical change in approach to social problems, defined by a bold set of East African business, nonprofit, and government leaders.
Among the fellows is Edward Agaba, senior business advisor leading the “Consolidating The Gains” project, by TechnoServe Uganda. The project that aims to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers by reducing the transaction costs along the banana value chain has so far reached 26,000 farmers in the districts of Mbarara, Isingiro and Ntungamo in south western Uganda.
Another beneficiary is Julio De Souza, Chief Operating Officer of Nuru Energy of Rwanda. A social enterprise that produces and distributes low-cost rechargeable lanterns, the firm has sold over 12,000 units in East Africa, and aims to sell five million lanterns by 2015.
The first of its kind in the region, the East Africa Fellows Program that borrows from the success of the Acumen Fund’s Global Fellows Program, is a partnership with the KCB Foundation that has donated Sh16 million towards the initiative.
“By supporting initiatives like these we hope to maintain and showcase our leadership in the region as we move towards our ambition to become the preferred financial solutions provider in Africa, with global reach”, said Dr. Martin Oduor-Otieno the KCB Group Chief Executive.
The prestigious fellowship is a twelve month program aimed at supporting sustainable business with potential for a big social impact. Among others, the fellows will receive support in refining and scaling up their own projects through execution skills developed over the course of the year.
The class of 2011-2012 will have access to a network of African and global leaders who are developing innovative solutions to poverty, in addition to continual guidance and mentorship on strategy, innovation and problem solving.
The fellows will be taken through five multiday seminars, a regional study trip of social change models in other countries and which shall then culminate in an innovation conference where they will showcase their projects and newly acquired skills.
Also in the inaugural class are Patricia Leila Jumi, Managing Director of GrowthAfrica Capital in Uganda, which has assisted over 1500 small business owners and entrepreneurs grow their businesses into strong and profitable companies.
Rachel Gichinga is, Co-Founder of Kuweni Serious, online change makers initiative that targets educated and middle class Kenyans. Joining her is Soiya Gecaga, Founder and Executive Director of “We The Change” Foundation, which seeks to provide early childhood education and care to children in marginalized communities in Kenya.
Other fellows include Charles Kalama Founder & Director of EcoPost, an integrated waste management company that utilizes waste plastic as a resource to manufacture aesthetic, durable and environmentally friendly fencing posts.
Also in the 2011-2012 class is Wagikuyu Miring'u Marketing Coordinator for Kickstart International, which aims to transform Africa from subsistence to commercial agriculture through low-cost capital equipment.
