MTN, in partnership with the MTN Solution Space and Jumia, announced the launch of the MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge.
The Pan-African competition launched yesterday, brings together over 1 000 entrepreneurs, students and investors, to collaborate on ways to amplify and consolidate the continent’s entrepreneurs.
The challenge is targeting more than 60 universities in 13 countries across Africa. The competition will challenge students to develop a unique digital application or smart solution that will solve a tangible problem faced on the continent.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with Jumia to launch the entrepreneurship challenge. Africa is a continent of promise, and our aim with the MTN Solution Space has always been to help fulfil this promise by developing uniquely African solutions. We believe that the entrepreneurship challenge is a key element of this. The response and willingness from universities across Africa to collaborate on this initiative has been truly remarkable and certainly exemplifies the impact of collective efforts to foster entrepreneurship among our next generation of business leaders,” says Sarah-Anne Arnold, manager of the MTN Solution Space.
Applications for the first round of the multi-phased competition are open and will close on 27 March 2016. Aspiring entrepreneurs from participating universities can enter in teams by logging onto www.gsb.uct.ac.za/MTNECbyJumia.
Africa’s mobile phone subscriptions reach 700 million
Mobile phone subscriptions are now almost eight times higher in Africa than in 2000, reaching about 700 million.
According to a report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), mobile technology has played a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 20 per cent of households have access to formal financial services.
Mobile phone banking services are especially prevalent in Kenya, with penetration rates also relatively high in Uganda and Tanzania.
The other countries with high mobile money account penetration rates are the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Rwanda and South Africa.
Awethu Project offers 22-week business incubator programme
To counter growing unemployment and the slow growth of the South African economy, Awethu Project has launched a new initiative, calling South Africa’s young entrepreneurs, who either have a business idea or an already established and innovative business concept, to apply to participate in its 22-week business incubator programme.
The only requirement for the programme is that candidates be ambitious and tenacious. The programme aims to help grow their business idea by offering successful entrepreneurs access to business skills training, to funding and business coaching through its incubator.
“The incubator model stems from Awethu’s firm belief that black South African youth are as entrepreneurial as the youth of any country, if not more so but the constraints of a largely informal economy make it near impossible for survivalist entrepreneurs to differentiate themselves,” says Yusuf Randera-Rees, co-founder and CEO of the Awethu Project. (Bizcommunity)
