Impact Chronicles: Unearthing impact stories across Africa
Founder Jocelyn R Nyaguse reflects on the organisation’s successes and challenges and how the Jamlab Accelerator Programme has been enlightening
By Jocelyn R Nyaguse
Social impact, innovation and entrepreneurship have become an important facet of economies the world over. Africa in particular has seen a significant rise in individuals whose mission in business is to combine profit and purpose, creating unique solutions that transform communities.
Unfortunately, the narrative of this influential group of people is not told often enough and platforms dedicated to curating this kind of content are hard to come by.
Impact Chronicles was born as a solution to this information deficit. The platform showcases and promotes the work of enterprises across Africa with a specific focus on the founders themselves, their thought processes, successes and struggles.
To date, we have managed to showcase work from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. Our goal is to create a footprint in all 54 African countries and spread the message of impact to the rest of the world.
Like most startups, we are plagued with constraints that constantly threaten to cripple our existence. Our struggles can be summed up in one word: access. Access to funding, access to networks and partnerships, access to human capital and access to human capital.
We are excited about the opportunities that the Jamlab Accelerator Programme presents to help us solve these issues. We are especially excited because we get to glean from the best in Africa and join a network that understands the struggle.
At the end of our enlightenment (that’s what we are calling the 6 months!), we expect to have a clearer outlook of our strategy and an understanding of what actions we need to take to achieve success in our vision. The past few weeks have been very insightful and we look forward to sharing a new and improved Impact Chronicles in a few months!
*Nyaguse is founder of Impact Chronicles
The JamLab Accelerator is a six-month hothouse programme for journalism and media innovators. It is based at Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in the heart of Johannesburg.
