Just like that, it’s the end of January. We hope you had a joyous holiday season with friends and family. It’s almost hard to believe that we are already in 2017 and looking towards a wonderful year of developing Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs through all the work that we do.
This Month’s Newsletter will focus on the Anzisha Prize Application Season, thought leadership from the team, opportunities for the young people that you work with, along with other highlights from the program.
Warm Regards, Anzisha Team
Anzisha Prize 2017 Applications
The 2017 Anzisha Prize Application season is closely upon us and we can’t wait to read all the applications from across the continent. Applications officially open on 15 February 2017. Please encourage young entrepreneurs that you may know to apply. Remember, you can also always nominate an entrepreneur below for us to reach out to them! Nominate an entrepreneur in English Nominate an entrepreneur in French Nominate an entrepreneur in Portuguese Nominate an entrepreneur in Arabic TO SHARE ON TWITTER or FACEBOOK Encourage other organisations to nominate a young entrepreneur by sharing the following messages on your Facebook or Twitter! Do you know a young entrepreneur between the ages 15-22? Nominate them to apply for the @anzishaprize at anzishaprize.org/nominate Hashtag: #ANZISHAEFFECT Our Twitter Handle is @anzishaprize and our Facebook page is facebook.com/anzishaprize
Thought Leadership from the Team
Every month we share resources, reports, articles and various content that you may use within your various programs. Please see below content written by our team:
1. BUILD-in-a-Box Report: A Replicable Model for Youth-Led Learning. African Leadership Academy (ALA) aims to create a pipeline of leaders for Africa through entrepreneurial leadership. ALA students undergo a two-year educational program that trains them to create workable models to capture opportunities and develop solutions to problems in their communities. Read about how they make this happen.
2. Anzisha Prize to Ecosystem: Fight Bias Against Women in Business to Encourage Female Participation in Entrepreneurship. Ifrah Arab, 20 from Kenya, founder of SuperMom, a last-mile distribution company which employs women and makes sustainable products easily accessible to them in rural communities. Also just as incredible is Vanessa Zommi, 22 from Cameroon, founder of Afya Tea, a venture which seeks to lower the diabetes rate throughout Africa by creating affordable and accessible moringa products. Read more about why we need to support women entrepreneurs like Ifrah and Vanessa.
3. What the military teaches us about training entrepreneurs. A newer use for boot camps in recent years, has been to train up a different kind of solider – the entrepreneur. Many entrepreneur support programmes have, in their design, some kind of boot camp to train their entrepreneur recruits. These are termed many things, Launchpad, accelerator camps, boot camps, start-up camps etc. but are, in essence, all the same thing with different designs but same purpose – to create and train up entrepreneurs in order to decrease high unemployment rates through job creation. Read more.
Anzisha Prize 2017 Prize Tour
This year, we are actively seeking to reach out to young entrepreneurial hot beds we have not tapped into yet; such as Sudan and Botswana. As soon as the applications are open, the Anzisha Team will be spreading the word in a country near you through our annual Prize Tour. The countries we will be visiting on our Prize Tour include Angola, Botswana, Sudan, Liberia, Tunisia, Kenya and Malawi. We will be visiting various cities and areas during our Prize Tour and spreading the word on radio stations, that cater to young people to get the word out about the $7,500 fellowship experience and opportunity to compete for $100,000 in prize money.
Email us at partners@anzishaprize.org if you would like to join us during the Prize Tour.
Anzisha Prize Fellows Spotlight
Congratulations to Koffi N’guessan, our 2016 Anzisha Prize Second Runner Up and winner of the Louis Dreyfus Foundation Agriculture Prize. Koffi was featured on national TV in Ivory Coast in recognition of his participation in Anzisha and as a youth entrepreneur who employs 35 people!
Congratulations to 2016 Anzisha Fellow, Issam on winning First Prize as the Best Moroccan Social Innovation of 2016 in the Technology category! Visit www.lagare.ma for more info on his venture.
Opportunities for Youth
Please see below a list of useful opportunities that young people can apply for:
1. Africa Junior Achievement South Africa Youth Enterprise Development Programme 2017 In the framework of the 2017 edition of the Africa Finance & Investment Forum and to encourage sustainable development, economic growth, innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, EMRC will present the “AFIF Entrepreneurship Award 2017,” offering a financial contribution and exposure/visibility to an African SME for a project with good impact. Learn more here.
2. Tony Elumelu Foundation Programme The Tony Elumelu foundation is now accepting applications for the 2017 application season. They will select 1,000 entrepreneurs who will engage in an entrepreneurship bootcamp which provides mentorship across 54 African countries. All entrepreneurs selected receive seed capital of $10,000. Learn more here.
3. Young African Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship (YASEF in Nigeria) Are you passionate about making a monumental impact as an early stage entrepreneur? The YASEF program is hosting a six months bootcamp in Nigeria. Applications close: January 25, 2017 and the Fellowship begins March 1, 2017. Learn more here.
4. 2017 SWITCH Africa Green – SEED Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development Is your enterprise small, locally driven and eco-inclusive with an ambition to be in the vanguard of green and inclusive growth? SWITCH Africa Green is looking for applications in Agriculture, Manufacturing, Tourism and Waste Management. Deadline to apply is March 8, 2017. Applications are welcome from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda. Learn more here.
5. Ideas for Action 2017 Competition Every year, students and young professionals from around the world participate to design ideas for financing and implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Winners of the competition will present their ideas during the IMF & World Bank Annual Meetings, receive support from a dedicated startup accelerator at the Wharton School, and benefit from unique networking opportunities with other young leaders as well as some of the most senior decision-makers in international development, academia, and the private sector. Learn more here.
6. Libra Internship The Libra Internship Program is a unique opportunity for bright and talented young people to experience the world through an international business group. Approaching 150 interns per annum have the opportunity to undertake a paid internship with the Libra Group or one of its businesses involved primarily in aviation, energy, finance and diversified, hotels and hospitality, real estate and shipping. Interns could be placed in key international locations including New York, Miami, London, Athens, and Buenos Aires. Learn more here.
Congratulations to Koffi N’guessan, our 2016 Anzisha Prize Second Runner Up and winner of the Louis Dreyfus Foundation Agriculture Prize. Koffi was featured on national TV in Ivory Coast in recognition of his participation in Anzisha and as a youth entrepreneur who employs 35 people!
Congratulations to 2016 Anzisha Fellow, Issam on winning First Prize as the Best Moroccan Social Innovation of 2016 in the Technology category! Visit 
