Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI) has announced local partners from across Africa that will help identify and mobilise innovative, resilient, and mission-driven African entrepreneurs.
The ecosystem partners will also support them throughout the application and selection process of the second edition of Africa’s Business Heroes prize competition (ABH).
ANPI’s Anchor Partners for 2020 are African Leadership Group, Ashesi, Dalberg, Janngo, and RiseUp.
Partners have also worked closely with aspiring candidates to build up their management and leadership capabilities – sharing knowledge, best practices, and insights from across their networks, as well as delivering training and education programs.
Africa’s Business Heroes prize competition – which is open for applications in both English and French – aims to provide entrepreneurs from across Africa a platform to showcase and develop their talent and business ideas.
The prize is open to all entrepreneurs regardless of country, industry, age, or gender. ABH will culminate in a grand finale later this year where the top 10 finalists will pitch global business legends for a chance to win their share of a US$1.5 million prize pool.
Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative has also been working with a diverse ecosystem of partners, including business incubators (Ethiopia Entrepreneurship Development Center, StartUp Factory Ethiopia, CTIC, Impact Hub Dakar, Outlierz Ventures, WikiStart Up, i4policy), communications platforms (Sasai), mobile network operators (Safaricom) and media outlets (Pulse.Africa and Startimes) to further amplify grassroots outreach to entrepreneurs and to make educational and training resources more widely accessible.
“We are honored to be able to work closely with these exceptional local partners to bring Africa’s Business Heroes prize competition to all corners of Africa and spotlight talented entrepreneurs from across the continent.
“Our extraordinary partners share our mission and commitment to enabling entrepreneurship and together, we hope to support entrepreneur heroes who will create jobs and opportunities for their local communities as well as catalyze a movement of entrepreneurship across Africa,” said Jason Pau, Senior Advisor for International Programs for the Jack Ma Foundation.
The 2020 edition of the ABH prize competition has received a tremendous level of interest and responses. To date, ABH has received 18,000 applications from candidates representing all 54 countries in Africa.
To apply and for the latest updates on the Prize, please visit: africabusinessheroes.org and follow @africa_heroes on Twitter.
