LEAP Africa Social Innovators Program 2024 for African Entrepreneurs

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Application is now open for LEAP Africa Social Innovators Program 2024. LEAP Africa’s Social Innovators Program (SIP) is an accelerator fellowship that empowers young changemakers through a holistic approach to building their capacity, connections and credibility. It was borne out of the understanding of the challenges faced by most young social enterprises faced with challenges such as early-stage funding, resource and connection deficit that hamper their growth and sustainability.

The Social Innovators Program aims to strengthen and advance youth-led innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa through capacity building, catalytic funding, and access to networks that enhance the sustainability of social entrepreneurs.

Applications are encouraged from entrepreneurs in the following focus areas: Quality education, healthcare, affordable and clean energy, climate action, agriculture, technology, gender & social inclusion, and workforce development.

Our SIP Alumni

Over the past 10 years, we have raised over 200 social innovators across the African continent. The Social Innovators program has trained and equipped social entrepreneurs for decades who have gone ahead to scale up their enterprises and win major grants for their businesses.

We believe that social entrepreneurs are the key to Africa’s economic building and development. Our goal is to strengthen and advance youth-led innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa through training and collaborative partnerships that enhance the sustainability of the overall impact of social ventures.

Eligibility Criteria for Social Innovators Program

All of the following eligibility criteria must be met by applicants in order to be accepted into the Social Innovators Program.

Citizenship/Residency:
You must meet one of the criteria below:
- You are a citizen of an African nation OR
- You are a permanent resident of an African nation.
Geographic Focus: Your current and future enterprise is geographically located in a local community in an African nation.
Leadership Experience: You have founded or co-founded a social venture(s) with at least one (1) year of impact.
Age: You will be between 18 – and 35-years-old on February 20th, 2023.
Language Proficiency: You are professionally proficient in English (spoken and written). Applications must be completed in English.
Program Commitment: You can commit to fully participating in the entire duration of the program between February 20th and October 26, 2023, which may include an in-person site visits in late June or early July, and up to 12 hours of virtual learning per month.
Applicants must be the founder or co-founder of a venture that has not previously participated in the LEAP Africa Social Innovators program, and only one co-founder per enterprise may apply.
Participants should have no more than three absences in order to complete the program and graduate from the fellowship.

Benefits

The Social Innovators Program is designed to build capacity, connections, and credibility for social innovators. This is achieved through a 5-day physical enterprise sustainability workshop, virtual Coaching, and networking Calls; Immersive one-on-one Mentoring sessions; Monthly virtual webinar sessions, and site visits.
All sessions are mandatory, exemption from a session must be made with prior notice to the SIP team. Full participation in these sessions would determine graduation from the fellowship.
There may be occasional optional sessions that highlight special and or timely opportunities. In total, participants can expect to dedicate an average of 12–14 hours per month over the course of the fellowship.