Thirteen finalists from nine African countries have been selected to compete for the Anzisha Prize award.
The award that focuses on innovative business ideas from various sectors also has its share of IT business ideas.
“The Anzisha Prize finalists demonstrate the unlimited potential of Africa’s youth to shape the future,” said Chris Bradford, Founder and Dean of African Leadership Academy. “It is a privilege to welcome these 13 innovators to South Africa as they compete for the Anzisha Prize.”
Over 270 applicants from 23 countries initially applied for the competition and they were narrowed down to the 13.
The projects ranged from environmental issues, agriculture, social movement groups and even financial advisory business ideas. There were two finalists in the IT sector. They are:
*Mahmood Oyewostrong> of Nigeria, 20, founder of RubiQube, a cross-platform (iPhone, Android, Nokia, Windows Mobile) mobile applications platform for the Nigerian mobile market. His innovation is targeted to help app developers in Africa to come up with relevant apps for the market.
RubiQube addresses three major needs in the burgeoning African mobile market. The first is increasing the monetization potential of local apps by reaching more potential customers on different platforms. The second was it allowed developers to built apps on one platform and sell them across several platforms. Thirdly, it had the ability to curate local applications based on the user’s location.
*Mubarack Muyika of Kenya, 18, founder of HypeCentury Technologies, a company that develops dynamic and affordable websites for small to medium sized local business.
Mubarack opened his company in 2011 and has been developing websites and other online solutions for his clients. He explored his love for technology and did numerous tutorials on Web-based languages such as Java, PHP and HTML. He hopes to grow the service to cover East Africa.
“The Anzisha Prize finalists come from a range of economic and educational backgrounds, and all share one common attribute: a desire to make a difference in their communities,” Reeta Roy, President and CEO of the MasterCard Foundation said.
MasterCard Foundation and African Leadership Academy (ALA) are the major sponsors of The Anzisha Prize challenge.
The finalists will head to South Africa for weeklong training where US$75,000 will be awarded among them. From then on, they will be Anzisha Fellows.
