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South African social impact advisory firm, Impact Amplifier has announced the launch of the Africa Online Safety Fund (AOSF) that aims to award grants worth $1,000,000 to organizations in Africa that put in place systems to address and ward off various threats lurking online .

Google is supporting the project, which is focused on addressing the privacy and security concerns, harassment, hate crimes, fake news, political targeting and manipulation, terrorist recruitment and promotion, and financial scams that have emerged due to the rapid increase in internet access on the continent.

Africa’s internet penetration has increased significantly over the past decade, with over 520 million people, or 40% of the population, accessing the internet.

However, this growth has also brought challenges that the AOSF is seeking to address.

The project is open to organizations across Africa but will primarily focus on Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa.

The AOSF will offer grants in three categories: transformative, maturing, and catalytic.

Transformative projects that are scalable, cover multiple geographies, and have the potential to reach large numbers of beneficiaries will attract a maximum grant of $50,000.

Maturing projects that seek to test new ideas within existing projects, reach new audiences, and test ideas at a larger scale will be eligible for up to $25,000.

Catalytic projects that are locally or culturally specific and smaller in scale will attract a maximum grant of $10,000.

Applications for the grants opened on 1 March and will be accepted until 30 April 2023.

Shortlisted applicants will be announced on 31 May and taken through the second stage of the application process.

Finalists will be announced on 15 July 2023.

This is the second call for applications for the AOSF, with the first call having taken place last year.

In the initial round, 26 organizations from various countries, including Ivory Coast, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, received grants through the program.