
Twenty five top young entrepreneurs from around Africa have been named as semi-finalists for the prestigious Anzisha Prize, Africa’s foremost youth entrepreneurship awards. They all stand a chance to share in over $75 000 USD in cash prizes, 10 of them are from East Africa
The 25 semi-finalists were chosen from the hundreds of entries received from 32 African countries and represent 15 different countries where they are actively making a difference by transforming their communities.
Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya all have three semi-finalists while, South Africa has two. A large number of the start-up businesses involve turning waste material into cost efficient and environmentally friendly energy sources while there is also an emphasis on web-based endeavours and education.
Twelve finalists will be chosen from this list of 25 semi-finalists at the end of July. The 2013 Anzisha Prize Finalist Week will take place from Sunday, August 25 to Friday, August 30. The grand prize winner will be announced at a gala function to be held at The Venue in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the evening of August 30.
Now in its third year, the Anzisha Prize – hosted by the African Leadership Academy in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation – celebrates initiative and innovation. It identifies exceptional young entrepreneurs who are leading by example and underscores their ability to significantly shape the future of Africa.
The word ‘Anzisha’ is taken from Swahili and translates into ‘initiative’ and is a project that is gaining significant momentum in African business circles as its impact is beginning to be felt.
Says Chi Achebe, Anzisha Prize programme manager: “We are delighted with the high calibre of semi-finalists this year. We undertook a road show throughout the African continent – visiting among other countries Ethiopia, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe – and are delighted with the tremendous response we received from around Africa.”
Finalists will win an all-expense paid trip to the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend a weeklong entrepreneurship conference and awards gala. While there, they will be taught by ALA’s renowned Entrepreneurial Leadership faculty as well as experienced business mentors. Winners will share $75,000 USD, courtesy of The MasterCard Foundation, and be given networking and learning opportunities to take their projects to the next level.
The top 25 Anzisha finalists (in country order) are:
KENYA
• Paul Barclay
Project Title: Impact Africa
Industry: Consumer products
Paul Barclay is a 21-year-old entrepreneur from Kitale in Kenya. His business, Impact Africa, provides inexpensive, reusable and washable sanitary towels for women and young girls. Barclay saw that the prices of regular disposable towels were simply too expensive for families strapped for cash so he and his team developed a product that could help thousands of women while still turning a profit.
• Daniel Sawa
Project Title: Biogas Digester Plant
Industry: Energy and waste
Daniel Sawa is an 18-year-old innovator from Busia in Kenya. He has created the Biogas Digester Plant which uses raw materials as a source for energy and manure. Starting small, demand quickly increased as Sawa’s innovative energy solutions were often more convenient for the consumer. These alternative solutions – whether it is using cow dung, agricultural waste or raw sewage – provide for a cheaper alternative to traditional energy.
• Joan Njoroge
Project Title: Rafiki Farming Project
Industry: Agriculture
A native of Nairobi, Kenya, Joan Njoroge got involved with a community that supported children affected by HIV/Aids at a very early age. Through these experiences, she realised a great opportunity in the form of agriculture to not only feed these children, but also make a commercial profit that could fund other experiences and daily necessities. Njoroge believed it would be even more impactful if she taught some of these important skills to the children living in the community.
RWANDA
• Joie Laurent Sangwa
Project Title: Domestic Biogas Use Promotion Project
Industry: Energy and waste
Nineteen-year-old Joie Sangwa from Burera in Rwanda realised that her community needed cheap and renewable energy resources. Working with a team, she discovered that human waste is a good source of energy and developed a process to turn it into an effective energy solution. This offers a cheap, alternative energy source while helping with the environment.
TANZANIA
• Victor Mnyawami
Project Title: The University Entrepreneurship Challenge
Industry: Education
Victor Mnyawami (22) is a student in Dar es Salaam where he noticed the need for a way to challenge students and spark an entrepreneurial mind-set among young Tanzanians. This idea led him to develop a platform for identifying, nurturing, and showcasing emerging entrepreneurs in Tanzania called the University Entrepreneurship Challenge. This challenge is not just about giving money to its winners but also provides advice to start-up companies and promotes entrepreneurship.
• Samwel Sevua
Project Title: Mocobase
Industry: Information technology
Arusha resident, Samwel Sevua, is a 21-year-old computer science engineering student who spends his time investigating how technology can improve the lives of people in their daily lives. He has created a software programme, Mocobase, which improves communication between parents and educational institutions. This helps parents wherever they are to receive a child’s grade report and communicate with teachers and administrators. This idea could revolutionise the reporting system within Tanzania.
• Damotila Silayo
Project Title: Jathropa Soap Production
Industry: Health and wellness
Domitila Silayo is a 21-year-old university student from Moshi, Tanzania. After visiting an agricultural festival, Silayo saw great potential for using the jathropa plant for cosmetic and medicinal uses. She began research on how to produce a soap made from the herbal plant that could heal a variety of skin problems including ringworm and dandruff. Jathropa Soap Production has gone on to help thousands of people in Tanzania fight off skin problems while still turning a healthy profit and creating employment.
UGANDA
• Best Aiyorworth
Project Title: Girls’ Power Micro Lending Organisation
Industry: Microfinance and education
Best Ayiorworth is an advocate for education in her home district Nebbi in northern Uganda. The 21-year-old has started the Girls’ Power Micro Lending Organisation. Its motto is “To help a mother, is to help a girl child.” Girls’ Power is a micro lending business that supports girls through their mothers. They give women starting capital or money to boost their existing businesses so that they are able to support their daughters with school fees and scholastic materials and ensure that they get an education.
• Titus Mawano
Project Title: Ffene
Industry: Information technology
Titus Mawano, a 22-year-old from Kampala, is the brains behind Ffene, a business management platform for SMMEs in Africa who are struggling to stay organised, yet still use a loose-leaf notebook to keep record of clients and sales. Ffene’s vision is to get African businesses in the cloud. Whether it is accounting, inventory management or data keeping, Ffene is the one stop shop for SMMEs. With well over 400 current customers just 3 months after launch, Ffene is well on its way to revolutionizing how SMMEs do business in Uganda and beyond.
• Matia Ssebiranda
Project Title: Appropriate Rural Technology Development
Industry: Energy
In 2011, 20-year-old Matia Ssebiranda from Masindi witnessed charcoal prices soaring in his home country of Uganda. After doing research, he realised that the problem was not only economic but environmental as people were chopping down whole forests for the production of charcoal. This deforestation, along with the harmful emissions from traditional charcoal use, makes traditional charcoal one of the dirtiest, yet most widely used, energy sources in Uganda. Ssebiranda began to research alternative methods of charcoal production which led to the creation of Appropriate Rural Technology Development. This project teams up with rural farmers across Uganda in an effort to utilise agricultural waste to produce charcoal, an alternative that is both cheaper and more sustainable.
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