Martha Chumo, the 19-year-old owner of the Nairobi Developer School, has been chosen among 12 finalists of the Anzisha Prize for Young Entrepreneurs, and will now battle for the US$75,000 prize money.
Chumo’s school provides young Kenyans with computer programming knowledge and skills to build sustainable solutions using technology.
Since 2011 the Anzisha Prize – a partnership between African Leadership Academy and the MasterCard Foundation – has been choosing fellows from across Africa who are exceptional in every sector, and Chumo together with fellow Kenyan Tom Osborn, founder of Greenchair, will join other finalists from the Democratic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria.
“2014 has been an exciting one for the Anzisha Prize search team. We brokered partnerships with key local organisations enabling them to play a primary role in evangelising the Anzisha Prize in their country. This has led to not only a stronger pool of applications but also more female applicants than ever before,” said Chi Achebe, programme manager of the Anzisha Prize.
“We are excited to see such a talented cohort of innovative and entrepreneurial young people join the Anzisha prize community,” said Deepali Khanna, director of youth learning at The MasterCard Foundation. “This Pan-African prize has had tremendous success over the past four years and is inspiring other young entrepreneurs across Africa to develop their own businesses or social innovation ventures.”
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