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Meet 12 Young African Entrepreneur Finalists For Anzisha Prize 2015

Meet 12 Young African Entrepreneur Finalists For Anzisha Prize 2015

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Faced with few resources and high unemployment, African youth are turning to innovation to solve challenges in their communities. Some are getting rich doing it, themselves becoming employers  in the process.

Twelve young entrepreneurs from nine African countries have been identified as finalists for the 2015 Anzisha Prize.

They were chosen from 494 applicants. The Anzisha Prize team — a partnership between the African Leadership Academy and The MasterCard Foundation — searched for African entrepreneurs between the ages of 15 and 22.

The Anzisha Prize received applicants from 33 African countries, including finalists for the first time from Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Finalists for the Anzisha Prize have a chance to win a share of $75,000 and access to ongoing support to scale their enterprises and expand their impact.

Based in South Africa. the Anzisha Prize describes itself as believing fundamentally in the power of youth-led change.

Check out the 12 young African entrepreneur finalists for Anzisha Prize 2015. This list will give you a good idea of the types of business opportunities — and the mindsets behind the vision — that are getting attention and attracting investor interest in African countries.

Sources: AnzishaPrize.org, CapitalFM

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Daniel Mukisa, 21, Uganda

 

Motorcycle delivery service in Kampala

Ugandan Daniel Mukisa is a student at Makerere University with an eye for market opportunities and passion for youth employment. In January he co-founded Transporter Corp., a Kampala-based motorcycle delivery service.

E-commerce has been growing in Kampala, but poor road infrastructure and traffic congestion can make it difficult for online retailers to deliver their goods cheaply and on time. As a result, Mukisa saw a niche in the market for a transport service that can be outsourced to deliver goods.

“Transport is bridging this gap by providing a cost effective delivery means for these companies, thus enabling them to cut delivery costs and time taken to deliver their items,” Mukisa said.

Within a few months of operation, the service was being used by hellofood.ug and GoodsExpress.com, making 150 deliveries a day. The business has its own fleet of 30 motorcycles, which can navigate traffic congestion. The company employs 35 young people.

Chantal Butare

Chantal Butare, 21, Rwanda

Dairy coop empowering female genocide survivors

Chantal Butare, a student at the University of Rwanda, helps genocide survivors provide for their children.

One way she is doing this is through her Kinazi Dairy Cooperative (KIDAKO), an initiative she launched in 2012 after she realised many dairy farmers under President Paul Kagame’s Girinka program where struggling to sell their milk. The Girinka program gave female genocide survivors in rural areas a cow as a source of income, but Butare realized many women struggled to gain access to markets.

KIDAKO works through collectors to purchase milk, process it, and sell it to consumers. The diary cooperative serves more than 3,200 farmers and employs 10 milk collectors to supply Rwanda and Burundi.

“My vision is to help eradicate poverty and hunger among vulnerable people in my community,” Butare said.

Blessing Fortune Kwomo

Blessing Fortune Kwomo, 20, Nigeria

Healthcare solution for low-income families

Nursing student Blessing Fortune Kwomo was 19 when she started De Rehoboths Therapeutic Studio – a holistic healthcare solution for low income families in Port Harcourt.

Her entrepreneurial inspiration came from her own experience. As a child in a poor family, she often had to return to hospital after being discharged because she was unable to fully recover in her home environment.

Kwomo saw the need for an alternative healthcare solution that would support traditional methods. She partnered with a local hospital to facilitate a post-care option for discharged patients from poverty-stricken families. The aim is to prevent their home and social environments from landing them back in hospital.

AKwomo says her model can be easily scaled and replicated across Nigeria.

“Poverty is a complex, multidimensional disease that requires an equally broad and comprehensive cure. Thus De Rehoboths envisages a holistic healthcare package solution that addresses both the biological disease and the socio-economic factor that aggravates it,” she said.

“It is a model of healthcare that transcends the traditional medical perspective of disease simply being a matter of biology. It addresses all aspects that contribute to total well-being, including biological, social and psychological factors, with tailor-made family action plans that address several dimension of health at once – which connotes health, housing, income generation, education, and citizenship.”

Karidas Tshintsholo

Karidas Tshintsholo, 20, South Africa

A clothing brand making a difference

South African Karidas Tshintsholo grew up in a township east of Pretoria, but did not let his underprivileged upbringing keep him from making something of himself. He embraced his schooling and extramural activities such as debating, and from a young age launched a number of entrepreneurial initiatives and youth empowerment programs in his community. Sheer determination landed him the Allan Gray Fellowship and access to the University of Cape Town where he is studying actuarial science.

He is the co-founder of Push Ismokol Clothing, a textile company that makes and sells T-shirts, caps, trousers and sweaters under its own brand. The business was launched in 2011, and his garments have been showcased on the popular soapie “Muvhango,” and endorsed by well-known South African personalities. The business employs six people.

“I believe in making a way for myself and youth in my community to earn a living,” Tshintsholo said.

Fabrice Alomo

Fabrice Alomo, 22, Cameroon

Empowering local merchants

“For me each problem has a solution. If there is no solution, there is no problem.”

This is what Fabrice Alomo believes. A passionate entrepreneur, he co-founded MyAConnect, a web platform launched in 2013. It aims to ease trade in Africa by bringing small businesses online and allowing them to easily sell to consumers using innovative payment methods that address African realities. These include the platform’s AMoney solution which enables users to buy and sell products without a bank card or account.

MyAConnect employs nine people.

“In our community it’s changing the way people trade, do business and will change our mere merchants to businessmen and businesswomen,” says Alomo.

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Hidaya Ibrahim, 22, Ethiopia

Improving the local education system

When Ethiopian Hidaya Ibrahim studied for an undergraduate degree at New York University Abu Dhabi in the UAE, she was inspired to improve the standard of education back home.

“Ethiopia’s success at expanding access to education in the country has been characterised by very low quality of education,” she said.

“Since 1999, primary and secondary education has seen an increasing trend in student repetition, dropout and underperformance.”

She co-founded the Qine Association for Promoting Education Quality (QAPEQ) in 2013, organizing forums that bring together government, private education institutions, and students. These inform policy makers of student needs and discuss innovative solutions to problems. She also runs capacity building projects, workshops and competitions for students to help develop academic skills such as critical thinking and writing.

Ibrahim raised around $4,000 for the organisation’s projects and hopes to expand beyond the capital Addis Ababa to incorporate more schools and students.

“We aim to inspire a culture of grassroots-level advocacy and engagement in an effort to promote education quality – a movement that is inclusive of various stakeholders.”

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Chris Kwekowe, 22, Nigeria

E-learning and skills development

Nigerian Chris Kwekowe is the passionate entrepreneur behind Slatecube, an innovative e-learning platform he launched in 2014. The tech startup enables users to study at their convenience via free and paid-for online courses, build technology products and connect with opportunities to put their new skills to use.

According to Kwekowe, nearly 200 people are already using the service to take online courses, read new books, and serve virtual internships. Slatecube was one of 50 startups selected internationally to attend the 2015 MITx Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, recently held in Cambridge, U.S.

“Also, we intend to link even more qualified and well-deserving students with top-notch organisations, thus upgrading the work-force and making the pursuit or knowledge and skill a fun and worth-while venture,” Kwekowe said.

George Mtemahanji

George Mtemahanji, 22, Tanzania

Lighting up rural areas with solar energy

Born in Ifakara, a small rural town of Tanzania’s Kilombero District, George Mtemahanji was educated in Italy after his mother moved there to work in 2003. In 2012 he graduated as a technician in renewable energy and decided to use his skills to open a business in his home town in Tanzania.

After much planning, he and a classmate co-founded SunSweet Solar, a photovoltaic company that imports solar energy solutions and materials from Europe. The company built the largest photovoltaic plant in the region at a school in Ifakara, according to Mtemahanji.

The business partnered with Fosera, a German solar company, to supply energy solutions in rural Tanzania.

“With 70 percent of Tanzanians having no access to electricity, we can give them electricity for 25 years for only $79… It costs less than $0.30 per month; less than $0.01 a week,” he said. “Today a liter of kerosene costs $1.10. That means the people in rural areas spent 73 percent more with kerosene per month than with our solar system.”

In addition to economic advantages, Mtemahanji said solar power has health benefits compared to kerosene, which releases carbon monoxide.

Mabel Suglo

Mabel Suglo, 21, Ghana

Manufacturing shoes from discarded tires

Ghanaian social entrepreneur Mabel Suglo is passionate about alleviating poverty. She is the co-founder of the Eco-Shoes Project, an initiative that helps artisans with disabilities make marketable shoes from used tires and recycled cloth. Started in 2013, the project employs five people.

“There are millions of discarded car tire stockpiles and waste materials in Ghana which pose an environmental and health hazard,” Suglo said. “Eco-Shoes rescues some of the millions of tires and other material waste creating an environmental nuisance, to make fashionable and comfortable shoes.”

She hopes to raise funds to buy better machines, enhance productivity, invest in an e-commerce site, and provide additional training such as computer skills that will help in designing shoes for her artisans.

“I seek to build a community of conscious consumers with a forward-thinking team who believe re-using and recycling can turn trash into treasure.”

Vanessa Zommi

Vanessa Zommi, 19, Cameroon

Processing tea to treat diabetes

Becoming a social entrepreneur has been Vanessa Zommi’s goal from the moment she participated in her first entrepreneurial project course. In 2013, when she was 17, she started Emerald Moringa Tea in Molyko, a town in the Buea region of Cameroon. The company processes the moringa plant into a tea that can be used to treat diabetes.

World Health Organisation research estimates 190 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide. By 2025, there will be about 330 million patients in the world, she said.

“Studies show that drinking moringa tea after a meal can ease digestion, and after two hours of intake, sugar levels in the body drop.”

Today the company employs six people and sells the tea in Molyko. Zommi plans to scale-up operations and expand to other regions.

Farai Munjoma

Farai Munjoma, 18, Zimbabwe

Accessing courseware content, past exams and career guidance

“My vision is to see an Africa that is free from poverty. This can only be achieved if we as business people take the front role in empowering our people,” says Farai Munjoma. This Zimbabwean entrepreneur believes lack of information is a barrier to social development. In 2014 year he co-founded Shasha Iseminar, an education platform that offers Zimbabwean high school students an online library of course and study notes, past exam papers and career guidance

Revenue generated from the online service has contributed towards paying school fees for marginalized students in rural Nyanga District.

Munjoma’s vision for Shasha Iseminar is to expand in Zimbabwe and beyond, and provide equal opportunities in education for the leaders of tomorrow.

“We want to create a package for students that can be used by students both online and offline. This means that people who live in the remote areas can still access the information even without Internet coverage,” he said.

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Sirjeff Dennis, 21, Tanzania

Community development through poultry farming

Tanzanian Sirjeff Dennis grew up in a poor community and saw a malnourished neighbor give birth to an underweight infant who later died. Today he is passionate about helping his community eradicate the tragedies of hunger and malnutrition that increase mortality rates.

In 2013 he founded Jefren Agrifriend Solutions (JAS), a business venture that deals with poultry and vegetable farming, as well as the packaging and sale of organic fertilizers. Day-old chicks are reared to adulthood under veterinary supervision until they can be sold as chicken meat or kept for egg production.

The project has not only improved family nutrition and provided a stable source of income, but has also contributed to overall food security within his community.

“A large segment of my poor community has an access to the project’s products that are relatively cheap,” Dennis said.