The 12 Winners of Third Edition of African Entrepreneurship Award in 2017

The 2017 African Entrepreneurship Award which occurred on December 12, 2017, featured 12 participants. These participants were selected from 40 Africans who were in Casablanca bootcamp which occurred between 6-10 December 2017. During the awards, the organizers recognized that 33 entrepreneurs had undergone mentorship training through this program. Notably, Othman Benjelloun who is the founder said that more than 132 countries had participated in the by giving over 12, 000 proposals. In 2017, the three categories that were recognized were environment, education, and unchartered fields.

The award traces its roots in 2014 during Global Entrepreneurship Summit when the founder brought this idea. In 2015, the first event was held, and from that time, the organization takes pride in its progress. The event was supported by BMCE Bank of Africa which aims at ensuring entrepreneurship spirit in Africa spurs.

Out of the 40 finalists from 19 African states who attended Casablanca bootcamp, the following 12 individuals were awarded in the three categories.

Winners in unchartered field category

The following four individuals won $50,000 for innovations:

Badr Idrissi from Morocco is the founder of Atlan Space. He developed a smart drone use to combat illegal fishing. Another participant from Morocco called Meryam El Ouafi won the innovation award for developing New irrigation technology to optimize water consumption. Meryam is the founder of Green Engineering Mission, Prototype. Christelle Kwizera was the only participant from Rwanda who won a price and she developed a Drinking water purification and distribution system to vulnerable communities. She is the mind behind the establishment of VOMA Groundwater Solar Kiosks. Finally, Geoffrey Ssekatawa represented Uganda in this category since he invented a lubricant collection and recycling system and he is the founder of Brent Technologies.

Although Paul Bartels and Flavien Simo were in the unchartered category, they were awarded $100,000. Paul developed a fire-fighting cart and is the founder of  Waterbok Community Fire-Fighting Cart. Flavien from Cameroon based her work on Production of aquaponics kits that combines fish farming and plant farming. Flavien also established Save Our Agriculture.

The main price of $100,000 was also won by the following individuals in their respective categories:

Education Category

The project of Louise Williamson on Sustainable fuel ovens for schools in remote areas appealed to the judges making Louise clinch the award. Louise Williamson is from South Africa and runs Sustainability Professionals startup.

Environment Category

The founder of Ecodudu, Adan Mohammed from Kenya was awarded for his proposal on animal food production from insects and larva. Having recognized the need for Waste collection, processing, and recycling with reward system for households, the judges saw it fit to award Folashade Amusa from Nigeria for nice work. Amusa is the founder of VicFold Recyclers. Allen Kimambo from Tanzania and founder of Zaidi General Enterprises was recognized for the idea of paper collection and recycling to protect the environment. Moreover, Kwame Ababio’s contribution for optimizing the cultivation and use of palm oil was highly appreciated. Kwame is the founder of Green Afro Palms. The list was not complete without recognizing Sylvester Mujakperuo from Nigeria who supports the idea of transforming used paper and cardboard into new paper products. Mujakperuo is also the mind behind Saint Michelles and Joey Limited.

Panel of Judges

The judges included Ms. Marie Paul Niat, Cameroonian entrepreneur, Mr. Brahim Benjelloun Touimi, Group Executive Managing Director of BMCE Bank of Africa, Mr. Gong Li, ex-Chairman of Accenture, China, and Mr. John-Bernard Duler, French-American investor and entrepreneur