2020 Anzisha Prize Applications launch with 10th Year Celebrations
Every year, the prize celebrates 20 African entrepreneurs, aged 22 years and
younger, each of whom have a chance to win a shared prize of US$100,000
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, February 17, 2020/ -- Today, the Anzisha Prize–Africa’s premier award and fellowship for Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs (AnzishaPrize.org) – is excited to announce that the 2020 call for applications is now
open. Every year, the prize celebrates 20 African entrepreneurs, aged
22 years and younger, each of whom have a chance to win a shared prize
of US$100,000. The grand prize winner receives US$25,000, the 1st runner-up US$15,000, and 2nd runner-up US$12,500. Every finalist receives US$2,500.
In addition to the cash prize, selected entrepreneurs will join 120
previous winners and become Anzisha Fellows, receiving business
consulting support and coaching services by a team of industry experts.
They also gain access to the Young Entrepreneurs Fund – a catalytic
matching fund designed to strengthen the credibility of very young
entrepreneurs through investment.
“It has been an exciting 10-year journey with some of the continent’s
brightest and youngest entrepreneurs. With the help of key partners and
those who share in our vision, we’ve been able to support and celebrate
very young entrepreneurs who represent the diversity of the African
continent; entrepreneurs who tackle youth unemployment with vigour and
courage beyond their years,” says, Melissa Mbazo-Ekpenyong, Deputy
Director of the Anzisha Prize.
To celebrate the decennial, the Anzisha Prize has planned five regional
events across the continent, including South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria,
Senegal, and Kenya. The events end in October with the Anzisha Prize
Forum in Nairobi, Kenya where the 2020 winners will be announced. Each
event is designed to catalyze conversations around youth
entrepreneurship and to gather key stakeholders within the
entrepreneurship landscape to collaborate with and support these young
entrepreneurs.
“The Anzisha Prize has grown to become a holistic and comprehensive
prize program that celebrates, nurtures, and advocates on behalf of
Africa’s young job creators,” says Daniel Hailu, Regional Head Eastern
and Southern Africa Programs, Mastercard Foundation. “Ensuring young
entrepreneurs have a clear pathway to learn and succeed is a core
component of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy,
and we encourage entrepreneurs, especially young women to apply.”
Young African entrepreneurs between the ages of 15-22 years old, who are running job generative businesses, are encouraged to apply before 31
March 2020. Past winners of the prize include 2019 grand prize winner,
education entrepreneur, Yannick Kimanuka (http://bit.ly/2STVncc) from Democratic Republic Congo (DRC). Yannick grew up in the war-torn
North Kivu eastern Province of DRC where she saw the effect that
conflict had on schools in her community and vowed to empower children
by increasing access to quality education. By the age of 20, Yannick
founded KIM’s School Complex – a nursery and primary school which aims
to improve the education of young children in her community.
As the program continues to influence and inspire young people to seek
entrepreneurship as a career path, the road ahead is a promising one. To encapsulate the last 10 years of the program, the Anzisha Prize has
chosen the word 'Sankofa' in the Ghanaian Twi language, which means "We
have the capacity to revisit the past and extract knowledge and wisdom
that we need to remake the future" (http://bit.ly/3bKOeDS).
Entrepreneurs are advised to download the application guide or apply for the prize at anzishaprize.org/apply.
For more information on the Anzisha Prize, to apply, and to nominate an entrepreneur, please visit the Anzisha Prize website:
Website: www.anzishaprize.org/applyFacebook: www.facebook.com/anzishaprize
If you’d like to attend the Anzisha regional events, please email prize@anzishaprize.org to share your interest. The first event takes place in Cape Town, South Africa on 3 March 2020.
About the Anzisha Prize:
The Anzisha Prize (AnzishaPrize.org) is delivered by African Leadership Academy in partnership with the
Mastercard Foundation. Through the Anzisha Prize, the organisers seek to fundamentally and significantly increase the number of job generative
entrepreneurs in Africa. They believe that a key to doing so is to test, implement and then share models for identifying, training and
connecting high potential, very young entrepreneurs (15 to 22 years old) so that many more organisations have better collective success in
creating a pipeline of entrepreneurs with the capabilities for scale.
About African Leadership Academy:
African Leadership Academy (ALA) (AfricanLeadershipAcademy.org) seeks to transform Africa by developing a powerful network of
entrepreneurial leaders who will work together to achieve extraordinary
social impact. Each year, ALA brings together the most promising young
leaders from all 54 African nations for a pre-university program in
South Africa with a focus on leadership, entrepreneurship and African
studies. ALA continues to cultivate these leaders throughout their
lives, in university and beyond, by providing on-going leadership and
entrepreneurial training and connecting them to high-impact networks of
people and capital that can catalyse large-scale change. For more
information, visit http://africanleadershipacademy.org.
About the Mastercard Foundation:
The Mastercard Foundation (MastercardFdn.org) seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper.
The Foundation’s work is guided by its mission to advance learning and
promote financial inclusion for people living in poverty. One of the
largest foundations in the world, it works almost exclusively in Africa. It was created in 2006 by Mastercard International and operates
independently under the governance of its own Board of Directors. The
Foundation has offices in Accra, Ghana; Nairobi, Kenya; Toronto,
Canada; and Kigali, Rwanda. Visit www.MastercardFdn.org for more information and to sign up for the Foundation’s newsletter. Follow the Foundation at @MastercardFdn on Twitter.
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