Denis Opudo
The 11th Edition of MTN Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition will be held in Oman. It will be on 9th April 2017. A total of 14 Arab countries represented by 84 teams will take part in the competition. The competition is held in collaboration between MTN and Community Jameel. Community Jameel is a social enterprise organization that runs many initiatives. The initiatives promote a good society and a sustainable economy. Community Jameel has been the founding partner of the competition for ten years now.
Riyada and Omantel are the 2018 competition strategic partners. Omantel is the competition’s vital supporter and contributor. Riyada helps the competition with legal strategies. Zain Group is also the competition’s regional partner. Zain Group offers digital services to the forum. The application for 2018 participation took place between 3rd September and 5th December 2017. A total of 5,300 applicants took part including from Saudi Arabia. Remember Saudi Arabia runs a parallel competition. Submitted projects came from different sectors. The sectors included education, creative industries, health sectors, and internet services.
A total of 14 Arab countries produced the semi-finalists. Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arabs Emirates and Saudi Arabia had 20, 14, 10 and nine semi-finalists in that order. Jordan had 7, Palestine 6, Morocco 4, Tunisia 6 and Bahrain 2. Sudan Algeria, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar had one representative each. The competition is not different from the previous years. The completion comprises of three tracks Social Enterprise, Startup and Ideas track. Each of the tracks has got 24, 34 and 26 semi-finalists respectively. Each project has got a team of not less than three of three individuals. This makes the number of Arab entrepreneurs to attend the completion in April 2018 to more than 200.
All the 84 teams will attend a pre-boot camp in February and March 2018. The pre-boot camp will take place in Egypt, the United Arabs Emirates, Lebanon, and Jordan. A total of nine winning teams from the MIT Ef Saudi Competition will be announced in March 2018. The nine will be part of the Pan Arab semifinalists. The completion is meant to celebrate the Arab innovators. The innovators get an opportunity to showcase, test and develop their ideas and skills.
The nine winners will share more than $160,000 with each track producing three winners. All the 84 semi-finalists will take part in an advanced training session. The participants will have personal guidance and mentorship. Also, there will be excellent networking opportunities and media visibility.
