Sterling One Foundation stated that its first edition of Africa Social Impact Summit will boost sustainable development across the continent.
The summit, which will be held on July 13 and 14, 2022 in Abuja, is in support of efforts to strengthen the work of social enterprises, impact investors, and community development practitioners in Nigeria and Africa.
The two-day hybrid event, is also in partnership with the United Nations Global Compact, Coca-Cola Foundation, Impact Investors Foundation, and Sterling Bank. It is expected to bring together thousands of players working within the African development space to attract impact investments into critical sectors across the continent.
Set up in 2018, the Sterling One Foundation has played the role of catalyst and convener by providing and facilitating different resources such as alternative financing to impact-driven organisations, including non-profits, to create long-term impact and close gaps in underserved communities across Africa.
The Africa Social Impact Summit aims to create realistic and effective frameworks that will make it easier for African countries to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals with the help of change makers who are tackling various challenges and driving behavioural change with their solutions.
Speaking on the summit, the CEO of Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe, opined that the platform presents a solid opportunity for Africa’s civil society and impact investment arms to make big moves in how much quota they contribute to nation-building across Africa.
According to her, our vision at the Sterling One Foundation is to tackle the root causes of poverty by working with different impact investors, social enterprises, and non-profits.
“We see daily how crucial the role they play in achieving this for Africa is, and this is why we are setting up this collaborative platform for these stakeholders to meet and engage with other stakeholders; business and government leaders to share ideas that work and solutions that can scale,” she stressed.
In addition to the summit’s opportunities for dialogue with key stakeholders, the Sterling One Foundation’s team plans to establish and support regional networks that will serve as knowledge sharing hubs, assisting both public and private sector players in aligning their priorities with the development space, facilitating the measurable achievement of the SDGs, and ensuring that solutions developed by various players are scalable and address the continent’s most pressing issues.
