Oritsegbubemi Omatseyin
Lagos — The Sahara Group Foundation, the social impact vehicle of energy conglomerate Sahara Group, has unveiled its transformative Extrapreneurship strategy to drive integrated economic and community empowerment programmes through collaborative partnerships and support for innovative businesses across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Speaking in New York, Sahara Group’s Director, Governance and Sustainability, Ejiro Gray, said the Sahara Group Foundation had over the years implemented interventions aimed at promoting the sustainable development goals, recording over two million beneficiaries across Sahara’s business locations.
According to Gray, the new strategy ensures the Foundation continues to actively drive the attainment of 11 of the 17 SDGs through inclusive and progressive partnerships.
“We are excited that with Extrapreneurship we can provide extra impetus to Africa’s march towards bringing sustainable development to African communities working through extrapreneurs, who through the support of Sahara Group Foundation can take their ideas and solutions to greater heights,” she said.
Chidilim Menakaya, Head of Programmes at Sahara Group Foundation, explained that the Extrapreneurship strategy will promote economic growth in local communities through platforms that give entrepreneurs, social innovators, inventors, and small businesses access to honing their craft and scaling their businesses, one community at a time.
“Our Extrapreneurship model is designed to help Sahara Group Foundation play a key role as a bridge for economic empowerment and sustainable development by linking beneficiaries to sundry support platforms valued at 100 million USD, ultimately creating an ecosystem of collaborators working towards transforming Africa,” she said.
Menakaya noted that Sahara Group Foundation’s new model aims to prepare the entrepreneurial community for the future of work through the integration of artificial intelligence in the Extrapreneurship framework.
She stated: “These community entrepreneurs, or what we call EXTRApreneurs will not only drive forward-thinking organisations but also empower ambidextrous individuals who are the backbone of the SME sector, a pivotal force for driving economic growth.”
She said the Extrapreneurship programme would identify and support innovators, entrepreneurs, inventors, and researchers who have developed proven sustainable products or solutions to everyday problems using locally available resources. This will be done through financial, advisory, and investment support as well as building business hubs within the community leveraging the business niche area of each community.
She added that Sahara Group Foundation will continue to drive its recycling initiative, an environmental sustainability and economic empowerment initiative that converts waste to wealth.
