Search for 2021 Africa’s Business Heroes Ongoing

Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI) flagship philanthropic program spotlighting and celebrating Africa’s entrepreneurial talent, has opened applications for its third annual edition of searching for the next Africa’s Business Heroes. 

The South Africa Innovation Summit(SAIS), the 2021 Anchor Partner for the Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition (ABH) in the Southern Africa region, will play a major role in supporting the search for the next ABH.

ABH will recognize 100 African entrepreneurs and allocate over a ten-year period grant funds alongside training, mentoring, and learning programmes as well as access to a community of like-minded African business leaders.

“As we open our third annual pitch competition, we want to acknowledge the huge inspiration coming from Africa’s extraordinary entrepreneurs, whose business ventures not only are successful and profitable but can generate a positive impact on their local communities,” said Jason Pau, Executive Director of International, Jack Ma Foundation.

Pau noted that Africa’s entrepreneurship has been experiencing an incredible upward trajectory, showing the magnitude of its potential and the opportunities yet to be seized despite the incredibly difficult conditions faced by entrepreneurs and small businesses around the world over the past year.

“Therefore, Africa’s Business Heroes is excited to join forces with our partners to identify, spotlight and support even more passionate, innovative, and determined entrepreneurs across Africa,” he assured.

The SA Innovation Summit is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs expand their horizons on the highest platforms from Africa to the world.

“This programme represents a great investment into the future of Africa through its entrepreneurs. In recent years, we see the Southern African ecosystem consolidating and being more represented within the ranks of emerging world-class businesses on the continent,” Buntu Majaja, Director of Ecosystem at the SA Innovation Summit said.

Majaja added: “The partnership with Africa’s Business Heroes will allow us to continue contributing to this trend.”

In 2020, the ten outstanding finalists, half of whom were female, were selected from over 22,000 applicants across all 54 African nations.

They represented eight African countries: Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe and from various industries including agriculture, fashion, education, healthcare, renewable energy, and financial services.

“I am proud to be a 2020 Africa’s Business Hero winner. The competition was an incredible journey. 2020 was a challenging year that made us refocus from profitability to survival. I hope my win inspires Africans to believe that we have what it takes to make an impact, no matter where we are,” said Chebet Lesan, Founder and CEO at Bright Green Renewable Energy, 2020 ABH Grand Prize winner.

The Prize is helping us scale our energy solution across East Africa, and we remain focused to change how Africa cooks, one kitchen at a time, confirmed Chebet.

The initiative targets entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, across every sector, age group, and gender who are operating businesses formally registered and headquartered in an African Country and that has a three-year track record.

Alongside such, the applicants are also expected to be: founders or co-founders of the company, must be African citizens, or be a child or a grandchild of an African citizen.

“At the grand finale later this year, ten finalists will take the stage to present their businesses and share their visions to an esteemed panel of judges, to win a share of the US$1.5 million grant,” read a press statement by the SAIS.

The journey to the Finale will include several rounds of rigorous evaluation panels, as well as access to a community of international leaders and innovators, industry experts, investors, and accelerators, through a number of multi-disciplinary bootcamps and training sessions.

“I encourage African entrepreneurs to use ABH as a platform to tell your story. Many vibrant, brilliant, African-owned businesses are yet to get their big break. If you have built a business, and it’s working, the world needs to know,” urged Chebet.

The application scheduled to close by June 7, will welcome the several rounds of evaluation before the grand finale in November, this year.