A development expert, Sarah Solomon-Eseh, has said that about two-thirds of the nearly 700 million people still living in extreme poverty globally are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

She stressed the urgent need for new approaches to tackle the continent’s development challenges.
Speaking at the launch of WAVRI, a pioneering African-led, tech-enabled platform designed to mobilise Africans at home and in the diaspora to fund innovative, community-driven solutions, Solomon-Eseh said the time had come for the continent to chart a new course away from dependence on fragmented foreign aid.

She said the persistent poverty levels, despite decades of donor-funded interventions, show that external assistance alone is insufficient to deliver sustainable development or empower communities in the long term.

Solomon-Eseh, also a social impact leader, explained that Africa’s challenge is not the absence of ideas or innovative solutions, but rather the chronic underinvestment in its people and communities.
She said: “For decades, we have been told that Africa’s future depends on external aid, but WAVRI is proof that Africans can fund Africans, that we can own our solutions, and that together we can build a self-sustaining future for our continent.

“Africa doesn’t lack ideas; it lacks sustained investment in its people. Through this initiative, we are rewriting that story by putting the power back into African hands.”

The platform, she said, is built to shift the development narrative from dependency to ownership.
According to her, it allows individuals, known as Wavemakers, to contribute to a collective fund, vote on which social enterprises receive support, and track the measurable outcomes of their giving in real time.

“It’s about trust and transparency. Too often, we hear stories of money raised that disappears into a black hole. Our subscribers know exactly where every naira, dollar, or pound goes, and they have a voice in which enterprises receive funding.”