Miklah Funding: How 5 of Miklah Entrepreneurs Won Thousands of Dollars in Funding!
We began Miklah Funding Strategy just yesterday (2021). In fact, for 2021, it was like a joke! We simply worked with few entrepreneurs for one funding opportunity, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Entrepreneurship Program. At Miklah, we call our entrepreneurs ‘SacrePreneurs’ because they are pro-sustainability, are sacred, and Miklah’s program for entrepreneurs is called Sacred Entrepreneurship.
Well, by the end of that TEF program, one of the entrepreneurs, Diana Birungi, won the award. Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Program offers 5000USD in grant funding, a great training and mentorship program, and connection to thousands of young entrepreneurs across Africa. It is one of the biggest entrepreneurship program, supporting about 5000 entrepreneurs per year!
Anyway, in addition to Diana, we have had more other three Miklah Life SacrePreneurs win thousands of dollars. And, in this short article, I will share their details with you. The goal is to encourage you to join our Miklah Funding Strategy and also envision the possibility of having your business funded for growth and expansion.
IMPORTANT: Wait! Applications are open for Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Program for 2023, see details and apply here. Better still, join our Sacred Entrepreneurship Funding Program and get supported with TEF program and hundreds many more throughout the year. Or Join Miklah WhatsApp for more details and connection with the rest of Miklah SacrePreneurs.
Back to the point, below are the 4 already-funded SacrePreneurs (Sustainable Entrepreneurs in Miklah Life Funding Program).
The 4 Already-Funded Entrepreneurs in Miklah Funding Program
This young lady never ceases to amaze me. She is hardworking, vibrant, and selfless! She was one of our first entrepreneurs to join our Sacred Entrepreneurship Program. She won Tony Elumelu Foundation with her initiative, Music and Arts Creatives. Since then, her life has never been the same again. She invested in her initiative and more other side hustles, and she is now a full-time entrepreneur, growing bigger everday. She often encourages me never to give up, and is always sharing thought-provoking ideas regarding how to progress even further. We cherish her in Sacred Entrepreneurship Community.
I have known Nabunya Naimat for some good time. Her first shot soon after joining Miklah’s Sacred Entrepreneurship Program was Tony Elumelu Foundation. However, despite our working hard and putting in all efforts, Naimat didn’t make it through. We had applied with her initiative, Hunai Agri-Investment Limited, which was promoting portable and fixed home gardens in urban settings. Luckily enough, when we later tried D-prize funding program with another project of hers called She Screens Uganda, Naimat won the funding. Well, D-prize is one of those funding programs that really gave us sleepless nights. Thank God we did it.
Stellah’s first trial when she entered our entrepreneurship program was a women-focused program called Lead Her Africa (second cohort) under Capital Solutions Ug. Well, she made it through and enjoyed the program. Apparently, by the time she joined our Funding program, Asio was already a TEF almuni. Later on, She tried NSSF Hi Innovator program, and won the funding like a pro! Her Initiative is Areg Agro Foods, which sources for organic raw materials and manufactures organic diary products like yoghurt, cheese, and milk. Her winning with NSSF Hi-Innovator re-affirmed her greatness and put her on a fast lane to business success.
Vicent (also called Nemvicx) sealed off the funding successes with a win in Arab Youth Center Startup Pitches in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, during COY17. Vicent has won many more other awards, especially with the initiative, SWAPafrica, which is a library of things. He has won Total Startupper of the Year, Tony Elumelu Foundation Program, UNCUP (Germany), and other entrepreneurship programs and opportunities. In this latest win under Miklah Funding Strategy, the initiative was ShareLand, an agri-tech pro-climate initiative that connects small scale farmers interested in farming but with no land to connect to landowners with unused land. The award is callled Best Global Startup 2022.
For the second time, Diana Birungi won more funding, this time from UNCAP (Germany). Apparently, the UNCAP online application process had us a lot to the extent we almost gave up. We tried contacting UNCAP web management officials to review their application forms and iron out the issues and they never responded. Whether they responded by just making the application form accessible or not, we can’t tell! Importnt to note is that Diana wasn’t the one to give up. She insisted and kept trying the application page.
One day, she made it, went through the filling of the application form, and all the required processes until she won her funding in March 2023. The funding was fairly enough, 50k Pounds, which is approximately 200m Uganda shillings. Since then, Diana’s life as a business woman is really a different one!
Miklah Funding: Final Thoughts on Our Funded Entrepreneurs
Those are the four entrepreneurs and their respective wins for business funding under Miklah’s Funding Program.
Our success rate is still low, at about 33%. In other words, for every 10 entrepreneurs who join our program, 3 win! However, we have just started. And, considering how fierce and competitive the funding opportunities we apply for can be, we are actually doing great! Would you love taking your chances with us? Join our Miklah Funding Program now!