The World Bank’s development financing program InfoDev has selected its top 50 technology driven Small and Medium Enterprises ( SMEs) in the world and is now inviting you to vote for your favourite. Several African SMEs have been shortlisted among the Top 50.
The forum is inviting the public to vote for the top 20 SMEs. The entrepreneurs behind the winning projects will then receive free mentoring and travelling packages among other incentives. Public online voting is open until May 30.
The Top 50 SMEs are listed here http://www.ideasproject.com/community/challenges/global_forum at the Nokia’s idea crowd sourcing platform IdeasProject. The SMEs founders will be flown to Helsinki, Finland to attend the 2011 Global Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship where they will showcase their products and services to colleagues, donors, experts, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and venture capital managers. They will also receive mentorship and take part in an SME fair.
The competition received 750 applications from diverse sectors such as agribusiness, climate technology and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The top 50 technology SMEs search was organised by InfoDev through its Access to Markets and Finance initiative which seeks to create opportunities for SMEs to access financing.
The Global Forum on Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship will run from 30th May to 3rd June 2011 and is expected to attract 350 participants drawn across from the business and technology worlds.
