Denis Opudo
African Entrepreneurship Award is a competition sponsored by BMCE bank of Africa. The award is aimed at empowering African entrepreneurs from various countries. 2017 awards saw twelve entrepreneurs from nine countries receive $1 million that will help them launch and develop their businesses.
The first ward went to Louise Williamson from South Africa a founder of Sustainability Professionals to help in solving cooking problems for rural communities and schools. The award was $100, 000. A Tanzanian by the name Allen Kimambo scooped the second award which was aimed at developing Zaidi General Enterprises to save trees, provide incentives to the community and clean the environment.
The founder of Vicfold Recyclers from Nigeria Folashade Amusa won the third prize. The project is aimed at recycling cans, plastics, and polythene. A Kenyan entrepreneur called Adnan Mohammed came third. He was rewarded for his initiative Ecodudu that produces protein-rich animal’s feeds and fertilizers from harvested larvae. Second Nigerian to win the award was Sylvester Mujakperuo who is the founder of Saint Michelle and Joey Limited. The company helps in recycling of papers and reducing the overreliance on trees.
Green Afro-Palms owner Kwame Ababio was also rewarded for helping small-scale farmers raise the profit from their palm oil, use trees, and land sustainably, and improve the living standards of the West African palm growers. Flavien Simo from Cameroon also won an award. Simo runs an initiative that produces high volume food directly at the selling point, and do away with conventional fossil fuel logistics. Paul Bartels won the sixth ward of the day. Paul runs a project that develops Waterbok Community fire-Fighting cart.
The innovation award worth $50, 000 was given to Meryam El Ouafi from Morocco. El is the founder of Green Engineering Mission which removes water wastes and ensures that plants receive adequate moisture. The same award was won by Badr Idrissi, a Moroccan entrepreneur who is the creator of Atlan Space which allows drones to monitor vast ocean areas, analyze shipping traffic and take steps to protect marine ecosystems. Geoffrey Ssekatawa (Uganda) was awarded for the collection and recycling of lubricants and Christelle Kwizera (Rwanda) for a project to purify and distribute drinking water to poor communities.
