Young Entrepreneur

challenge

The Brief

Youth unemployment in Africa is critical. And now, as a result of COVID-19, millions more jobs have been lost. As a way of surviving the crisis, can you generate your own job you care passionately about and considered entrepreneurship as a career option?

According to the African Development Bank, 22-27% of Africa's working-age population are starting enterprises. This is the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world.

You already have the key ingredient you need to be a successful entrepreneur – your creativity and imagination. Combined with new digital and communication technology, you now have a competitive advantage over large corporations and stand a real chance of success.

To enter the Young Entrepreneurs challenge, describe your best business or non-profit enterprise idea in less than 1,000 words. If you wish, add pictures and videos to help our judges better visualise your idea. 

Search your creative mind and experiment with possibilities. Do not hold back or criticise your ideas. Remember, with creative thinking there is no idea that is ‘too wild’, ‘absurd’, ‘impossible’ or ‘half-baked’.

Judging criteria

Your ideas will be judged on their creativity and innovation. That is - how original, new, inventive and groundbreaking they are.

These ten questions can help you to think about your business plan:

• How creative – original, new, inventive, and groundbreaking – is your idea?

• Is the idea focused on the near or far future?

• How passionate are you about the idea? Does the idea plug into a bigger worldview? 

• Will the idea serve local or global needs?

• What is the potential intellectual property value of the idea? Can it be licenced/replicated?

• How clear is the business structure? How are sales, marketing, branding, product creation, team-building and growth organised and managed?

• How is technology integrated into the business? I.e. how is the business going to interact with the world? Will it use digital video, articles, audio, podcasts, downloads, live event streaming, slideshows, blogs, tweets? Is it mobile friendly?

• Is the business set in a factory, offices, community, or home? A combination? If so, why? And is it effective?

• Who is/will be on the team? Do they share the same passion for the idea? How creative are the team-members? Where are they located – locally or globally? How are team-members evaluated: by performance, or hours clocked?

• What is the fundamental ethos of the business: profits or livelihood? Are you prepared to share profits with communities and charities?

If you have any questions about any of the above, please let us know and our team will be happy to help! 

Enter your idea now. Think differently. Imagine freely. Dream big. Be brave. Be bold. Push boundaries.

How to enter:

 

1. If you have not created an account yet, create it on the MASK website now (this facility is under revision and will be live soon).
   
2. Upload your ideas, with images or videos if you wish.
3. Judges will select the winners and invite the winners to the Award Ceremony that will take place in Nairobi in May 2021.

Deadline: to be announced.

You can also enter the other challenges here: