Johannesburg, 22 August 2019 – 11 young entrepreneurs from across Africa – Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe – have been named as finalists in the inaugural $100,000 Generation Africa GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize, a new, continent-wide competition launched on 30 May to select two innovative ventures in the agri-food sector to win $50,000 each in social impact investment as well as mentoring support.
On 3 September 2019, the 11 agripreneurs (five men and six women, aged 18-35), each founder of financially viable ventures in the agri-food sector, will take part in a live grand finale competition at the Africa Green Revolution Forum in Accra, Ghana. The following day, two winners (one woman and one man) will be announced at the AGRF Gala Dinner alongside the winner of this year’s prestigious Africa Food Prize.
The 2019 GoGettaz competition is the flagship project of Generation Africa, a broader partnership initiative, founded by Yara International and Econet Global launched in Davos earlier this year when it released Landscape Study: Youth Enterprise in Africa’s Agri-Food Sector. Generation Africa’s enduring mission is to bring the dynamism of youth entrepreneurship to Africa’s agri-food sector and to strengthen the ecosystem that supports these entrepreneurs as they travel the challenging journey from ideation to scale. Generation Africa’s vision is to inspire young Africans to become agri-food entrepreneurs; increase the number of youth-led agri-food SMEs sustaining annual growth rates of over 20%; encourage venture capital to be invested in high-potential agri-food SMEs; create jobs, and support the development and commercialization of transformative innovations and technologies in the agri-food sector.
“A new generation of tech-savvy agripreneurs will help deliver the jobs, prosperity and food security that are vital to Africa’s future”
noted Luis Alfredo PĂ©rez, Head of Business Unit Africa at Yara International.
So far, the GoGettaz agripreneurship campaign has reached over 46 million young people across the continent since its launch on May 30. From a pool of 3,000 online applicants from 39 African countries, the 11 finalist ventures stood out with their comprehensive business ideas, inspiring pitch videos, and strong telephone interviews conducted by judges who looked specifically for:
Innovation,
Market presence and traction,
Inspiration and presentation,
Social and environmental impact, and
The scalability and financial sustainability of their business model.
