Building Africa’s Entrepreneurial Skills

The Jack Ma Foundation’s $10 million cash prize for 100 African entrepreneurs in 10 years is a huge opportunity for the development of Africa entrepreneurial skills to address local challenges and Nigeria is already grabbing a large of this opportunity, writes Emma Okonji

Founder of Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Group, Mr. Jack Ma, has through its Jack Ma Foundation, set aside a whopping $ 10 million cash prize for 100 Africa entrepreneurs in 10 years, where 10 African entrepreneurs with best ideas and solutions to solve African challenges, will win $ 1 million each year in a competition that will run for 10 consecutive years.

Known as the Africa Netpreneur Initiative, the competition started this year, with entries from across African countries, which produced 10 finalists that were announced at the Netpreneur 2019 Conference, which held in Accra, Ghana, at the weekend.

Nigeria, aside clinching the first position among the 10 finalists, which attracted a cash prize of $ 250,000 ( N90 million), also won additional three slots, making four slots from among the 10 finalists that were announced as winners of the 2019 Africa Netpreneur Initiative.

Temie Giwa-Tobsun of LifeBank from Nigeria emerged the first winner, Omar Sakr from Egypt emerged the second winner, while Christelle Kwizera from Rwanda emerged third winner.

All contestants at the 2019 Netpreneur Prize Award Initiative, showcased their solutions to a great audience, which included the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo; the 8th UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon and Jack Ma, among others.

While the top 10 winners got a collective $ 1 million prize, the first winner went home with $250,000, the second winner got $ 150,000, and the third winner got $ 100,000.

The remaining seven winners among whom were three Nigerians, went home with $ 65,000 each. Pleased with the competition, which was adjudged by international and renown judges, Jack Ma, said the initiative was meant to encourage and support young entrepreneurs who are the hope of Africa.

Ideas that won the prizes

The first prize, which was won by Temie Giwa-Tobsun of LifeBank from Nigeria, is about an idea and solution that have to do with collection and distribution of blood from donors, which are supplied to hospitals on request, to save lives of patients who are in critical need of blood to survive an operation, especially in child delivery.

Gina- Tobosun is already supplying treated blood to various hospitals in Lagos and Abuja, with a plan to upscale her business and expand to other cities in Nigeria and beyond Nigeria. During her presentation, she said she was already using drones to supply blood to hospitals in other to achieve faster delivery time, in order to save lives that could be in critical condition. According to her, most hospitals lost their patients for either scarcity of blood that matches their blood group or for delay in getting blood supply to the hospital. She explained that LifeBank has saved several lives in Nigeria and that she needed financial support to upscale the business with more technology innovation, to more cities in Nigeria and beyond Nigeria, hence she entered for the competition.

“It was an incredible honour to be named Africa’s Business Hero. I was truly inspired by my fellow winners at today’s Netpreneur Summit. The Africa Netpreneur Prize will give me the resources to grow LifeBank and expand our presence in Nigeria and throughout the rest of Africa. I look forward to continuing my journey to solve problems and make a significant impact on the future of Africa,” Giwa- Tubosun said.

Omar Sakr from Egypt, who emerged as the second winner, has his company name as Nawa- Science, with speciality in building research laboratory to tackle the Africa research challenges. According to him, Africa lacks quality research laboratories with well equipped instruments for academic research. Giving cost as a major barrier to building modern and well- equipped laboratories in schools, Sakr said he decided to build modern laboratories in designated areas, where schools could bring their students to have practical experiences in science and technology related courses.

According to him, he entered for the competition in order to get additional funds to build more laboratories in different cities and communities in Egypt and the rest of Africa.

Christelle Kwizera from Rwanda, who emerged third winner, has her company as Water Access Rwanda, which provides clean water to rural communities in Rwanda. During her presentation before the judges, Kwizera said her company provides clean water to people in rural communities to keep them healthy at all times. The people pay little amount of money to access clean water from Kwizera’s company and she uses the money for repairs and maintenance of hand- held pumps that her company installed in various communities, through which they access clean water. She asked the judges and the Jack Ma Foundation that she needed the money to expand her business fo more communities within and outside of Rwanda, while providing more hand-held pumps and more access to clean and potable water to rural communities. The first winner went home with $250,000, the second winner got $150,000, and the third winner got $ 100,000.

Other prize winners

The other seven finalists, who received $ 65,000 each, include: Waleed Abd El Rahman, CEO, Mumm, from Egypt; Ayodeji Arikawe, co- founder, Thrive Agric, from Nigeria; Mahmud Johnson, founder and CEO, J- Palm from Liberia; Kevine Kagirimpundu, co- founder and CEO, UZURI K&Y from Rwanda; Dr. Tosan J. Mogbeyiteren, founder, Black Swan from Nigeria; Chibuzo Opara, co-founder, DrugStoc, from Nigeria; and Moulaye Taboure, co- founder and CEO, Afrikrea, from Cote D’Ivoire.

The other three Nigerians that won $ 65, 000 each, had different ideas and solutions that attracted and convinced the judges.

Mogbeyiteren has a solution that is addressing immunisation and healthcare delivery in children, while Chibuzo Opara, has a technology driven platform for drug distribution. The platform gives pharmacists and hospitals, access to quality drugs.

The judges

The finale event, called “Africa’s Business Heroes,” was held in Accra, Ghana, where the top 10 finalists pitched their businesses directly to four prestigious judges including Jack Ma; Founder and Executive Chairman of Econet Group, Strive Masiyiwa; Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria and Founder/ CEO of The Chair Centre Group, Ibukun Awosika; and the Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group, Joe Tsai.

The four- man judges for the 2019 Netpreneur Prize Initiative, were carefully selected to get the best of ‘Africa’s Business Heroes’, based on their wealth of experiences.

Jack Ma said:“The finalists who competed in ‘Africa’s Business Heroes’ should be an inspiration for Africa and for the world. Each of these entrepreneurs looked at big challenges facing their communities, and saw them as opportunities. It is my strong belief that entrepreneur heroes, like these finalists, will change the world – creating companies that drive inclusive growth and opportunity for the continent. Everyone is a winner tonight.”

According to Masiyiwa, “The competition demonstrates the overwhelming entrepreneurial talent that exists across Africa. I am very excited about the future of industry and entrepreneurship for this continent. The top 10 truly showed the limitless potential of African business.”

Awosika said: “What really struck me about the finalists was that they each addressed specific African problems with a specific African solution in a fresh way, leveraging technology that wasn’t available previously. If this is an indication of the future of entrepreneurship on the continent, then Africa’s future looks bright.”

The initiative of Jack Ma to produce Africa’s Business Heroes through the Netpreneur competition, is to develop Africa’s entrepreneurial skills, which he said, remained innate in them. The essence is to host a pitch competition where 10 finalists from across the African continent will compete for $1 million in total prize money every year through 2028. All entrepreneurs across Africa, are encouraged to apply. Entries for next year’s prize will open in the first half of 2020, according to Jack Ma Foundation.

Addressing participants in Accra Jack Ma said: “Entrepreneurs are problems solvers who always challenge the things that people do not believe will work for them. There are lots of challenges and opportunities in Africa, which only tech entrepreneurs who are the heroes of Africa can address, and we need to support entrepreneurs in Africa.”

According to him, good entrepreneurs open the radar, search for challenges and create opportunities out of challenges for others. He listed the four ‘Es’ which African entrepreneurs must stand on to include: education, eGovernment, e-Infrastructure and entrepreneur skills. He encouraged young African entrepreneurs to continue to innovate and called on African governments to support and empower young African entrepreneurs.

In his welcome address, the President Akufo-Addo, thanked the Alibaba Foundation, especially its founder, Jack Ma, for believing in the Africa growth and for sponsoring the Netpreneur competition among African entrepreneurs. He said Africans must take entrepreneurs very seriously and support them to promote development in the African continent. According to him, the population of Africa remained huge and should be seen as opportunity for growth in entrepreneurship programmes.

“Entrepreneurship is a vital component of economic growth that will enhance economic development and Ghana will continue to support technology innovation and promote the growth of technology entrepreneurs in Africa,” Akufo-Addo said.

Ban Ki Moon, who, along with his wife, graced the competition and award night said failure drives opportunity for success. He encouraged African entrepreneurs not to give up when they experience some sort of initial failures, but to continue to innovate in order to come up with solutions that will not only address African challenges, but also global challenges. He said Africans must empower their youths, including females to drive the technology development in Africa. He commended the Jack Ma Foundation for its initiative to develop Africa through the Netpreneur competition, which he said, would spur young African entrepreneurs to innovate and change the face of Africa with technology.