The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is pleased to announce the 15 winners of the 2016 Young African Entrepreneurs Competition. The competition attracted a total of 756 applicants from 38 African countries. The following are the stages and processes that were followed to identify the 15 winners.
- All 756 applications were screened for compliance to the set guidelines and application rules
- A total of 663 applications were compliant. Each of these applications were evaluated by three independent reviewers (Round one)
- A shortlist of 139 (20.9%) applicants were selected for Round two Each of these applications was once again evaluated by three independent evaluators.
- A shortlist of 20 (13.6%) applicants were evaluated by a panel of six reviewers to select the final list (Round 3).
- Owing to the competitiveness of the enterprises and innovations in Round 3, the panel made a decision to select 15 Young African Entrepreneurs instead of 10 that were originally planned for. The selected 15 winners are:
| No. | Enterprise | Team Leader | Country |
| 1. | Bio Phyto | Zodome Gildas | Benin |
| 2. | InnoFaso SA | Omar coulibaly | Burkina Faso |
| 3. | Soja kwa Afia na Ubora wa Ucumi Kwetu (SAUK) | Bikulo Bachiyeka Richard | DRC |
| 4. | Ubiquitous Farm Management | Selam Girma | Ethiopia |
| 5. | Green Afro-Palms (GAP) | Ababio Kwame | Ghana |
| 6. | FarmDrive Limited | Mary Joseph and Rita Kimani | Kenya |
| 7. | Safi Organics Limited | Samuel W. Rigu | Kenya |
| 8. | J-Palm Liberia | Mahmud Johnson | Liberia |
| 9. | ColdHubs Limited | Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu | Nigeria |
| 10. | CASA MANGO | Djiby Diagne | Senegal |
| 11. | LANDFIRST (Pty) Ltd | Phethile Nkosi | South Africa |
| 12. | CIBIO | Brian Makwaiba | South Africa |
| 13. | WEKEBERE | Tashobya Stephen | Uganda |
| 14. | Empire Agricultural Services (EAS) | John Bosco Birenge | Uganda |
| 15. | HappyFarmer | Moonga Chowe | Zambia |
The 15 winners have been invited to make presentations during the Fifth Africa Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference, 17-21 October, 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa (see www.ruforumbiennial.org).
RUFORUM thanks all the Young African Entrepreneurs and Innovators that participated in this competition. RUFORUM also extends appreciation to all the reviewers that have been instrumental in executing a total of 2,463 reviews in the last two months. Click here to download the press release.
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