Ten small and medium-sized businesses from Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda have been selected as finalists in a competition that awards innovative entrepreneurs in Africa.
The ten companies are competing for a Grand Prize of US$ 100, 000 in the ‘2010 Legatum Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship’. The finalists are also competing for five other prizes of US$ 50,000 each.
The award which is now in its third year aims at building a network of entrepreneurs for purposes of sharing knowledge and promoting business standards and success in Africa. It also seeks to encourage entrepreneurs of small businesses and attract venture capital investments in the region.
The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship has been organised and sponsored by Legatum, an international investment group and the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm.
The ten finalists will make presentations to a panel of top business executives, investors and entrepreneurs after which the winners will be named at a ceremony to be held on December 6 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The competition which kicked off in July this year attracted more than 2, 700 companies from Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The competition allowed entries from businesses that have been in existence for at least three years and have annual revenues of between $USD 2 Million and 25 million.
