Entrepreneurship award open to all Africa-based entrepreneurs

Previous AFIF Entrepreneurship Award winner, Lazaro Mwakipesile, head of Raphael Group, Tanzania.

This year’s award, as previous years, will be sponsored by Rabobank Foundation and the winner, an existing African small-medium business, will receive a US$10.000,00 cash prize, year-long media promotion support in and out of Africa, free participation in the AFIF 2017, including the pre-conference training.

“The AFIF Entrepreneurship award aims to spotlight leading innovation private sector projects happening today in Africa. This is the moment when entrepreneurs can showcase their remarkable achievements, where partners and participants get to know about outstanding projects which are pushing boundaries in their community and country and where other entrepreneurs can be inspired and receive much-needed know-how,” says Inês Bastos, senior project manager at EMRC and head of AFIF 2017. Applications must be sent to EMRC by December 19th, 2016.

In parallel with past winners, the current holder of the Award, Lazaro Mwakipesile, head of Raphael Group (Tanzania), has seen a vast change since participating in the competition. “I am now internationally known. Since AFIF 2015, I have travelled abroad four times for presentations and proposals. Furthermore, I expect to travel to USA this December 2016 for a meeting at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

Wachira Kariuki, CEO of Classic Foods, who was named runner up in 2015, has also experienced positive change since attending and presenting his business to the international audience.

This year’s Africa Finance & Investment Forum (AFIF) will focus on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Growth” and will be held for the first time in the vibrant city of Nairobi, Kenya, hosted by the Strathmore University, taking place from 15 - 16 February 2017.

AFIF 2017 will gather over 300 delegates from all over Africa, Europe, America and Middle East. EMRC will organise a pre-conference training on "A Road-map for Entrepreneurship Growth" (13 -14  February 2017). The training is addressed exclusively to AFIF 2017 participants and will be divided in two linguistic groups (English and French).

As Wachira Kariuki concludes, “My advice to participants especially the entrepreneurs is to make use of the opportunity to make the right contacts and learn from participants. The training session for the entrepreneurs is critical for fund raising. Sharing ideas and experiences with other business people is key to success.”