Anzisha Prize team travels across Africa to meet semifinalists
About a month ago
Raphaelle Nemo landed in Lomé, Togo. She had travelled from South Africa
and was on her way to meet two 22-year-old entrepreneurs: Sam Kodo who started technology company Infinite Loop, and Koffi Akagla, founder of Super Energy, a maker of customised extension cords.
Both are semifinalists for the 2014 Anzisha Prize,
a competition that recognises young African entrepreneurs who are using
business to solve problems in their communities. More than 300 young
entrepreneurs applied for this year’s prize.
Nemo is part of the Anzisha Prize site visit team that go out to inspect and vet the businesses of each of the applicants.
From Togo, Nemo travelled to Côte d’Ivoire and arrived to collapsed
buildings and submerged roads. The West African country had just
experienced days of intense rain and according to local news reports 39
people were killed due to the flooding that ensued.
Why does the Anzisha Prize go to these lengths to visit the semifinalists?
The site visit stage is meant to ensure the legitimacy of the
applicants’ projects. Many organisations undergo similar vetting
processes, but none have made such a bold commitment. The Anzisha Prize
goes beyond only checking whether these projects are real or not.
This year the Anzisha Prize also enlisted the help of past finalists
of the competition to visit the 2014 hopefuls. For example, Barclay
Paul, the young CEO of Impact Africa Industries in Kenya and a 2013
Anzisha finalist, paid a visit to Tom Osborn, the 18-year-old founder of
Greenchar. The business has developed charcoal briquettes that are
energy efficient and also smokeless, making them safer for humans.
“Tom has a product that the community needs and we saw proof of this
from the people we met there,” said Paul, adding that the site visit
showed him that Osborn’s project was bigger than he had originally
thought.
As the Anzisha Prize grows bigger each year, maintaining integrity by
verifying the projects of semifinalists is one of the goals of the site
visits. But it is also part of a larger mission of Anzisha, which is to
champion young African people who are doing amazing things as
entrepreneurs. And conducting site visits to wherever semifinalists are
located in Africa, is an example of that commitment.
Follow the story of this year’s Anzisha Prize and what has become known as the #AnzishaEffect online and on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to the Anzisha Prize’s YouTube channel to get first access to their upcoming webisodes as they premiere.
Source: http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/anzisha-prize-team-travels-across-africa-to-meet-semifinalists/42019/
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