The Promotion of African Entrepreneurs & Innovative Solutions were at the forefront of Friday’s MTN Entrepreneurship challenge

On April 8th 2016, JumiaNigeria, in collaboration
with MTN and Lagos Business School screened
10 entrepreneurs’ teams at a live pitch event,
which took place at the Lagos Business School
in Lagos, Nigeria. Jumia Nigeria Managing
Director Fatoumata Ba strongly welcomed the
initiative, stating that “the Challenge is aimed at
promoting and encouraging youngNigerian
entrepreneurs.
We want togive them strong opportunities to
bring to life innovating projects, in the
technology sector, that will empower the modern
Nigerian man and woman.”
She noted that “by empowering and supporting
Nigerian entrepreneurs, we build a strong
ecosystem of start-ups and SMEs that will
eventually tackle one of Nigeria’s biggest
problem: its high unemployment rate.”
The short-listed teams presented their start-up
project at a live pitch before 4 judges;
Fatoumata Ba, Managing Director of Jumia
Nigeria, Guillaume Leblond, Managing Director of
Hellofood Nigeria, Henry Okoede, Senior Manager
Business Development MTN Nigeria and Dr
Henrietta Onwuegbuzie, Academic Director and
Owner Programme at Lagos Business School.
They allguided the teams through the live
pitches and provided them with feedback and
comments on their presentations and
expressions.
The 10 teams includedajaoko, Wazobia Farmers,
Medical Digital-Dashboard, Metro Digital Group,
Farmers Hub, Trash Collect, UcareIcare Nigeria,
Myloveaffairs concepts, Pass.ng and
SchoolWork. Those 10 teams were shortlisted by
the Judges before the live pitch event and out of
a pool of more than 800 applicants across
Nigeria.
Pass.ng and Schoolwork were shortlisted and
declared winners of the live pitch event in
Nigeria. Both projects are dedicated to
empowering students and teachers alike and
improving Nigeria’s educational system The
projects also recognized the importance of going
mobile in Nigeria and presented mobile platforms
to help students pass their exams (Pass.ng) and
improve the learning experience for students and
the teaching experience for lecturers.
The MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by
Jumia is a multi-phased Pan-African competition
which started locally in every country across
Africa in February. Thousands of applications
from African entrepreneurs were received,
reviewed and the best ones were selected to
pitch in April. The massive participation clearly
shows the striking entrepreneurship spirit of the
African youth. A spirit particularly adamant in
Nigeria which scored the highest number of
applications received among all other countries
where the Challenge is taking place.
Indeed, similar live pitches event were organized
in countries where Jumia operates, notably
Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Ivory Coast
and Nigeria.
Pass.ng and Schoolwork will now have to
convince another Jury who is convening behind
closed doors this week to announce the final list
of winners who will be flown to Cape Town for
the Grand Finale. Indeed, 10 final winners from
across Africa will be flown to South Africa to
attend the Entrepreneurship Festival, hosted by
the University of Cape Town Graduate School of
Business on May 27 2016.
The finalists will have to pitch their project to a
room of successful entrepreneurs, business
leaders, judges, investors and international
media before the grand winner is announced.
The winner of the MTN Entrepreneurship
Challenge powered by Jumia will win a cash
prize of US $25 000 dedicated to bringing to life
their start-up project and will also benefit from a
yearlong partnership with Jumia, where they will
have the opportunity to work from any of the e-
commerce’s offices across Africa.
The final winning team will have the opportunity
to learn from, and be mentored by experienced
and successful entrepreneurs in the JUMIA
network.
Here’s to wishing a tremendous success to our
Nigerian start-ups for the next round!
For more information about the MTN
Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by Jumia
please visit: http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/
MTNECbyJumia/