Sukuma Afrika is a forum to assist young entrepreneurs on the African continent to network, receive mentorship and attain financial assistance for their businesses. It’s just another example of a local initiative being powered by an international partnership, and it started with an honest idea.
By Craig Falck for Africa Report
Photograph @ http://www.sukumaafrika.org/
Sukuma Afrika was conceived using the 8 United Nations goals that aim to halve worldwide poverty by 2015, and it does so using its various partnerships with the likes of the United Nations’ Millennium Campaign, corporate partners and financial investors. One of the initiatives that the Sukuma Afrika forum is using to beat poverty and encourage young businesspeople is through its Young Entrepreneurs Competition Campaign.
This competition encourages entrepreneurs to get into business with a social angle to their business ideas. The only restrictions are that these entrepreneurs need to be younger than 35 and they must present a for-profit business model that contributes to one of the 8 Millennium Development Goals made up of the following categories in the competition:
Category 1: Initiatives aimed at eradicating poverty and hunger
Category 2: Initiatives aimed at access to education
Category 3: Initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality
Category 4 & 5: Initiatives at improving maternal health and child mortality
Category 6: Initiatives aimed at combating HIV/Aids and other prevalent diseases in Africa
Category 7: Initiatives aimed at a better environment
Category 8: Initiatives aimed at facilitating exchange between Africa and the world
The awards ceremony will take place on the eve of the World Economic Forum Africa in May in Ethiopia and will give notable candidates and winners of the competition one-on-one networking opportunities with investors who see Africa as a land of opportunity. This will hopefully give them the chance to see their entrepreneurial dreams become real businesses, as well as inspire other young African entrepreneurs to dream big and get into the business place.
