Working through its start-up advisory partners - Outbox and Makerere Business School (MUBS) Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Incubation Center, eighteen (18) businesses have been shortlisted for NSSF’s Hi-innovator external pilot programme, where up to 10 companies could stand a chance to receive seed funding and technical support worth USD 20,0000 each (approximately UGX 74 million), and the opportunity to access investors and partners to help accelerate their growth.
Towards the end of October 2019, these businesses will have an opportunity to present to an independent jury composed of startup founders, well-established large business founders and corporate executives; to demonstrate the potential of their businesses and secure a place to receive up to USD 20,000 in seed capital and technical assistance to support them scale.
Successful businesses will also have the opportunity to access a pool of interested investors who will be willing to sink additional capital and support if the businesses can demonstrate self-sufficiency at scale.
The shortlisted companies include:
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Innovation Streams Limited (Health): Leveraging on artificial intelligence to provide patients with affordable access to high-quality healthcare through a hospital management system;
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Divine Organic Foods (Agriculture): Increasing production, value addition, access and affordability of foods that are rich in micronutrients for children and pregnant mothers from low-resource settings;
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Teheca (Health): Connecting new mothers to post-birth care services and information;
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Akaboxi Limited (Financial Services): Micro saving using technology for low-income communities;
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Joelex Uganda Limited (Health): Affordable sanitation for communities on the fringes.
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M-FARMER (Agriculture): Enabling access to financial services through digitized agricultural production records;
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The Portico Ltd (Energy): An agro-for-energy company that plants trees and utilizes biomass waste as feedstock for the production of environmentally friendly fuels;
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Obuntu Bwa Casalina (Agriculture): All natural ingredient snacks with a long shelf life;
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Famunera (Agriculture): An easy to use online (web and mobile) platform from which farmers can buy high-quality low-cost agricultural inputs from verified suppliers and also sell their farm produce to verified buyers in Uganda;
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AEN (U) Ltd (Agriculture): A millet agro-processing business
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Krystal Ice Limited (Agriculture): An agro-processing business for frozen all-natural fruit bars;
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Ejijim Dried Fruit Snacks (Agriculture): Company focused on producing nutritious snacks
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PAAT Soil Clinic Ltd (Agriculture): Soil testing advancing climate-smart technologies that are accessible and affordable to resource-poor farmers for increased food production
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Biomass Briquettes Saving Energy Constructions Limited (Energy): Manufacturers of energy-efficient stoves.
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People and Energy (Energy): Data aggregators for solar/energy providers.
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Imani Academy (Education): Quality education through schools for children of low-income earning parents.
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ChapChap Africa Ltd (Financial Services): financial and inventory management tools for SMEs.
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OneLamp Uganda Limited (Energy): Solar energy provider that leverages Local Retailer Networks And Mobile technology to End Energy Poverty In Uganda
About the NSSF Hi-Innovator Programme
As part of the National Social Security Fund’s (NSSF’s) 10-year strategic plan; 2015 – 2025, the Fund launched an Innovation Programme dubbed the “Hi-Innovator Programme” in November 2018.
The programme aims at crowdsourcing, prototyping and scaling high value and impact solutions targeted for the Fund, its customers and the national economy through entrepreneurs in the general public, or both.
Overall, the Hi-Innovator programme looks at driving internal innovation through its staff and partners, and external innovation through small and growing businesses in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
In April 2019, the Fund launched the pilot to the External Hi-Innovator Programme. This pilot is focused on supporting small and growing businesses (SGBs) in education, agriculture, health, energy, tourism, financial services and ICT access seed funding and technical assistance to enable them to grow and scale.
NSSF hopes that supporting these businesses scale, will, in turn, drive national economic development through the provision of employment opportunities and additional sources of Government revenue through taxation; as well as increase contributions and returns to the Fund through gainful employment.
The External Hi-innovator Programme seeks to support businesses addressing the Sustainable Development Goals, the National Development Plan and NSSF’s strategic business objectives with a focus on education, agriculture, health, energy, tourism and financial services and ICTs.
