Google.org—the charitable arm of Google, has just concluded the first edition of her Impact Challenge in Africa. They held the final event across all three key sub-Saharan African (SSA3) markets—Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa on Wednesday, November 28, 2018.
Before this year, the Google.org Impact Challenge (GIC) had run consecutively for five years in about 20 places including India (2013), San Francisco Bay Area (2014 & 2015), Brazil (2014 & 2016), Korea (2016), and Pittsburgh (2017). This year, of the eight places—Australia, Cleveland, Columbia, Germany, Kenya, Nigeria, Oklahoma City, South Africa—where the GIC held, three of them were in Africa. This shows some level of commitment from Google on investing in the continent.
Recall that at the first ever Google for Nigeria event last year, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company was going to be giving grants to eligible African non-profits this year to improve their community. About nine months after, it came to pass.
“We also want to invite nonprofits from across the continent to share their ideas for how they could impact their community and beyond. So we’re launching a Google.org Impact Challenge in Africa in 2018 to award $5 million in grants. Any eligible nonprofit in Africa can apply, and anyone will be able to help select the best ideas by voting online”, Google (2017).
Bonus: They ended up giving grants up to $6 million, one million dollars more than the projected amount in 2017.
Launching Google Impact Challenge in Nigeria
Six months ago, Google.org Impact Challenge (GIC) launched in the SSA3 markets. The challenge’s ask was simple – how can you make your community better as a local nonprofit leader or social entrepreneur?
The participants were to provide the ideas, while Google.org would give the support—funding, training and volunteers—to drive it.
In each of the three countries, twelve finalists would emerge, out of which would come four winners. The winners would receive a coveted $250,000 (a little less than ₦100 million) grant from Google.org, while finalist would receive half of that ($125,000).
A finalist can become a winner if she is voted in by the public (People’s choice) or selected by the panel of Judges (Judge’s choice). There can be only one winning startup selected via the People’s choice. The other three would have to come from the Judge’s choice.
At a final event, the pitch would happen, and the judges would pick their top 3 and announce the people’s choice, as winners of that round of GIC.
The reality
Over 5,000+ people applied, and 36 finalists were chosen to pitch at a final event.
In Nigeria, 12 finalists pitched, and the Judges chose three winners—The Cece Yara Foundation, HelpMum, and Project Enable Africa. While VetsArk—an agritech startup using data science techniques to protect crops and livestock from pests and diseases—emerged as the People’s Choice.
A statement from Google’s Product Marketing Manager—Adepoju Emmanuel, puts the number of votes tallied at 200,000, making it “the highest in any Impact Challenge globally”. Bearing in mind that this same GIC has been held in other continents—Australia and USA.
Hence, VetsArk beat the likes of BudgIT Foundation, Junior Achievement Nigeria, and even winner-Project Enable Africa-to become the People’s choice.
The Nigerian Judges include Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor—Google Nigeria’s Country Director, John Momoh—Chairman of Channels Media Group, Parminder Vir—CEO of Tony Elumelu Foundation, Jude “MI” Abaga—CEO of Chocolate City Music Group, Oluseyi Oyebisi—Executive Director of Nigeria Network of NGOs, and Eghosa Omoigui—Managing General Partner of EchoVC.
The final event took place at the prestigious The Podium, Lekki and marked the end of the first edition of the Google.org Impact Challenge in Nigeria.