You can also help entrepreneurs directly with funding and with your expertise. Sustainable Technology for Africa and the OVO Acceleration Fund are the the levers.
Would you like to cooperate with OVO to stimulate entrepreneurship in countries where it isn’t that much in evidence? You can do so as a volunteer, as a business and as an ambassador.
March 22 marks the annual World Water Day, which focuses on global water issues. And this is much needed: 1 in 10 people have no access to drinkable water. The Belgian NGO Join for Water is fully focused on sustainable solutions for drinking water, sanitation and agriculture - involving Belgian companies such as Renotec. In February 2020, two Renotec employees went on a immersion trip to Uganda.
A sustainable house in the shape of a triangle, which provides an answer to twelve of the seventeen sustainable development goals for the inhabitants of slums: this is Tridealhouse. This innovative concept is still in the development phase, but OVO is firmly convinced of its enormous potential and supports the project with a loan and expertise.
In Senegal, Smart Villages, a pilot project of Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs, has deployed the first solar panel farm providing electricity and water to 22 villages. "Smart Villages is a concept which we intend to deploy to ten other locations in the near future," says OVO volunteer Philippe Convents.
In the Ugandan capital Kampala, the OVO club exists exactly one year this month. "This could be the best business club in Uganda", says chairman Douglas Karugaba, CEO of Innovex.
Interested African diaspora entrepreneurs and starters can submit their project until 31 January. Twelve projects will be selected and will have a chance of extensive knowledge transfer and a social loan of up to 50,000 euros. Sustainability, innovation and social impact are the key words.
For our SusTech4Africa campaigns we can always count on the support of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research, in short VITO. But the organisation also helps Belgian start-ups with innovative ideas, for example as a partner of the Start It @KBC platform.
With a loan from Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs (OVO), Imani Academy is building new classrooms for 300 students in a slum in the Ugandan capital Kampala. "Without affordable quality education, children remain trapped in poverty," says founder Ivan Agaba.
As a laureate of the Ugandan SusTech4Africa campaign 2019, the start-up Rena Beverages is no longer unknown in OVO circles. But also the members of UNIZO were recently introduced to 'Mama Hibiscus'.