When Efosa Obano and a small team raised money to procure medical supplies for a hospital in Akwa Ibom, a southern Nigerian state, they were confident they were addressing a critical gap. The hospital lacked basic equipment, and the intervention felt necessary.
But within a few months, the phone calls began to come in. Some of the equipment had broken down and needed repairs. The team raised money again to fix the problem, only for the cycle to repeat itself.
It was around this time that Obano began reading The Prosperity Paradox by Clayton Christensen, co-authored by Efosa Ojomo. In the book, Obano encountered a similar experience. Ojomo described building a well in a community, only to find himself constantly raising money to maintain it after it broke down.
More importantly, the book introduced Obano to the concept of market-creating innovations.
First articulated by Christensen, market-creating innovations transform complicated or expensive products into ones that are affordable and accessible to a much larger population. Rather than relying on aid or recurring charity, they create entirely new markets that can sustain themselves over time.
A familiar example can be found in wealth management startups that lowered the barrier to entry for investing.
For decades, investing was largely reserved for those who could afford personal wealth advisors or meet high minimum capital requirements. By simplifying processes and leveraging technology, these startups made investing accessible to millions who had previously been excluded.
In 2018, Obano launched the African Impact Initiative, a nonprofit focused on helping Africans build sustainable businesses. The organisation’s mission was shaped directly by the lessons he had learnt. According to Osaretin Obano, the organisation’s Executive Director, the Initiative focuses on enterprises that leverage technology to scale solutions to real, local problems.
When evaluating potential opportunities, three criteria matter most. As Charles Isidi, Head of Marketing and Growth, explains in a conversation with Techpoint Africa, they look at impact, market creation, and scalability.
“The fact that technology is a multiplier doesn’t erase basic arithmetic,” Isidi notes. “You can have a business that leverages technology as a multiplier, but ultimately, it must be solving local challenges, and it must be scalable,” he shares.
Playing the long game
Although many of the businesses it supports are building technology or tech-enabled solutions, Osaretin is quick to point out that the organisation does not operate like a traditional venture capital firm.
For one, it is structured to be the first institutional cheque many founders receive, providing up to $25,000 CAD in early support. But unlike VCs, whose assessments are often driven by the potential for outsized financial returns, the organisation applies a different lens, prioritising impact, sustainability, and long-term viability over rapid growth metrics.
This philosophy also shapes how long it stays involved with the businesses it backs. Rather than working toward a predefined exit timeline, the organisation is designed to support founders over an extended period, allowing them to build at a pace that reflects the realities of their markets.
Obano explains that while it does not rule out exiting successful investments, those decisions are guided by context rather than pressure from investors.
African businesses, he notes, operate under constraints that are often underestimated — from infrastructure gaps and regulatory complexity to fragile supply chains and limited access to capital. These realities can make the kind of fast, venture-scale exits many VCs pursue difficult to achieve within conventional timelines.
By acknowledging those constraints upfront, the organisation can take a more patient approach that better aligns with how value is created across the continent.
“When we go into spaces to support entrepreneurs, they might have the greatest ideas but not the best working conditions, so you have to have that in mind,” Obano says.
In practice, this means structuring support around what founders need to survive and grow. It also means resisting the temptation to treat every promising business as a future unicorn and instead focusing on helping founders build resilient companies that solve real problems and can endure over time.
Adding value beyond capital
Measured against the sums technology startups often raise or hope to raise, $25,000 can seem like a drop in the ocean. Obano, however, is unfazed. The objective, he explains, is not to bankroll rapid expansion but to get businesses to a point where they can begin generating revenue or operate more sustainably.
That approach is particularly relevant at a time when even venture capital firms are increasingly reluctant to fund loss-making businesses. Still, the organisation does not distribute capital indiscriminately. Each investment is preceded by a needs assessment to ensure the funding provided can meaningfully shift the trajectory of the business.
Capital is only one part of the equation. A major source of value comes from the organisation’s diaspora network. More than 300 million Africans live and work in Western countries, building entrepreneurial and corporate expertise. Yet their engagement with the continent has often been framed through charity.
AII is intentional about changing that dynamic, positioning diaspora professionals as partners who can contribute experience, networks, and market insight to local businesses.
One area where this support is especially valuable is market expansion. Currency devaluations and rising inflation across many African markets have pushed businesses to seek more stable and diversified revenue streams. AII supports this process by facilitating introductions, market immersion trips, and access to trusted networks abroad.
However, expansion is not treated as a default next step. Obano notes that the team works closely with founders to first confirm that their businesses are stable and have a solid customer base in their home markets. Only after those fundamentals are in place does the organisation actively support cross-border growth.
Beyond its investment portfolio, AII is also focused on democratising access to knowledge. Through its bootcamp, it offers business training to as many applicants as possible, including those who do not ultimately receive funding.
“The idea is to, at whatever stage you’re at, run you through the basics,” Obano says. “We want to make sure that because you applied and showed an interest in building something for Africa, you can get some value.”
Looking to the future
Since its launch, the African Impact Initiative has steadily expanded its footprint across the continent. It has run programmes in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, bringing together founders from more than 20 countries. To date, the organisation has supported over 100 businesses, which collectively have generated more than $25 million in revenue and created over 1,000 jobs.
Beyond these numbers, the organisation says its most valuable gains have come from the lessons learnt across successive cohorts.
Chief among them is the importance of nuance. According to Obano, businesses that may appear similar on the surface often require very different kinds of support depending on their country, operating environment, and stage of growth.
To respond to this, AII has increasingly structured its programmes into distinct tracks and streams. It currently runs a healthcare-focused stream as well as a country-focused stream centred on Nigeria. This structure allows the organisation to tailor its support more precisely rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model.
These experiences have also helped AII clarify the core areas where it can add the most value. Obano outlines five key pillars of support: storytelling, product, fundraising, go-to-market, and people and operations.
Looking ahead, Obano defines success less in terms of scale for its own sake and more in terms of sustainability. A key goal is to reduce AII’s reliance on donor funding. Currently, institutions such as the University of Toronto play a significant role in supporting its work. Over time, he hopes that successful portfolio companies will be able to support newer founders.
A small number of exits would also provide capital that the organisation could reinvest into other businesses, strengthening its ability to support founders over the long term. For Obano, that would mark a shift from an externally funded programme to a self-sustaining platform.
