The SA Innovation Summit is proud to announce that they are the 2021 Anchor Partner for Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition (ABH) in the Southern Africa region.
The 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 and SAIS’s role will be to support the search for the next “Africa’s Business Heroes”
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.
The SA Innovation Summit is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs expand their horizons on the highest platforms from Africa to the world. Entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, across every sector, age group, and gender are able to submit their applications, in either French or English, for a chance to compete for a spot among the Top 10 finalists.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.” said Chebet Lesan, Founder and CEO at Bright Green Renewable Energy.
“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.
Despite the incredibly difficult conditions faced by entrepreneurs and small businesses around the world over the past year, Africa’s entrepreneurship has been experiencing an incredible upward trajectory, showing the magnitude of its potential and the opportunities yet to be seized.
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.” said Jason Pau, Executive Director of International, Jack Ma Foundation
“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.
The partnership with Africa’s Business Heroes will allow us to continue contributing to this trend” – Buntu Majaja, Director of Ecosystem at the SA Innovation Summit.
For more information and to apply, please see the Prize Overview by following this link: https://africabusinessheroes.org/en/the-prize/overview
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