A total of 35 youth drawn from five African countries have been shortlisted in the on-going youth competition dubbed Agribiz4Africa.
Over 800 participants submitted business ideas via the online platform agribiz4Africa. The 35 finalists are from Nigeria, Rwanda, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana and Kenya.
The ideas were judged by agribusiness academia from Kenya and Nigeria and the top 25 selected contestants received a USD 1000 grant to test their idea and develop a concrete business plans.
Similarly, 32 legible video clips were judged by a Communication expert from Daystar University and leading TV producers from KTN, NTV and CITIZEN. The Top 10 video contestants were assigned a lead Media expert to mentor them on professional video production.
The 35 are expected to arrive in Nairobi, Kenya, on 26th of August, 2014, for a two-day training boot-camp. Thereafter, a judging panel will select the top three from the two categories-Agribusiness Idea and Agribusiness Messaging- who will travel to Addis Ababa for the award ceremony
Speaking in Nairobi, Syngenta head of Corporate Affairs for Africa and Middle East, said the competition main objective was to promote new business opportunities in crop value chains in Africa.
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| Shikwati James the Enactus Kenya Country Director |
“Syngenta’s mission is to raise awareness of opportunities in agriculture; identify wealth creation activities among communities in Africa and make agriculture “cool” for the youth,” said Kinyua Kinyua M’Mbijjewe, Head of Corporate Affairs, Africa Middle East
The competition was carried through an online platform www.agribiz4africa.com and youth aged between 18-30 years from Sub Saharan Africa were invited to submit a500 word business ideas essay that was be judged by leading agribusiness academia from East and West Africa.
James Shikwati, the Enactus Kenya, Country Director, noted that youth from Sub Saharan Africa had been challenged to identify a bottle neck or problem that makes a particular crop’s value chain ineffective and/or inefficient. They were then required to propose a practical idea/solution that has the potential to make a step-change improvement in the chosen value chain.
The top 3 contestants from each category during the Semi-final competition on August 29, 2014 will proceed for the Finals in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) during the African Green Revolution Forum 2014 at the African Union Headquarters.
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| Kinyua Mbijjewe the Head of Corporate Affairs Sygenta |
The overall winner of the business idea competition will get a USD 10,000 cash prize while the overall winner of the Video production competition will get a USD 5, 000 cash prize.
The Africa Agribusiness Competition is organized by Syngenta and Enactus Kenya. It targets youth aged 18 – 30 years. Its objectives are to promote new business opportunities in crop value chains in Africa; raise awareness of opportunities in agriculture; identify wealth creation activities among communities in Africa and make agriculture “cool” for the youth.
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