Africa’s Business Heroes, the flagship philanthropic program for the Jack Ma Foundation in Africa, recently announced the top 50 finalists for the 2021 ABH prize competition. Among these are 5 Ugandans.
The 5 include Daniel Mukisa – a Co-Founder and the current CEO of Ridelink, a logistics provider for Small and medium enterprises (SMEs); Ronald Hakiza – Co-Founder and CEO at UgaBus.com; Emmanuel Emodek – Co-Founder and MD at ChapChap Africa; Robert Kintu – CEO at FIT Insights; and Peter Kakoma – the CEO at Kanzu Code.
These and the other 45 African entrepreneurs are in the running to win a share of $1.5 million in grant funding and will gain networking and learning opportunities throughout their ABH journey.
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Africa’s Business Heroes 2021 Top 50 by country
Sixteen countries are represented in the Top 50, 10% of which are Francophone. They include Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Nigeria has the largest cohort with 12 in the Top 50. Women are well-represented, making up 38% of the Top 50.
There is an enormous diversity in the type of businesses, with sixteen different sectors represented including agriculture, beauty & wellness, construction, consulting, education, energy, environmental protection, financial services, F&B, healthcare, ICT, logistics, manufacturing, media & entertainment, retail, and transportation.
From here, the Top 50 will participate in an ABH virtual boot camp to engage with and learn from business leaders as well as previous ABH winners. The boot camp will prepare them for the next round of interviews with the Round 2 judges, after which the Top 20 will be identified and announced in August.
The Top 10 will be announced in late September before they go on to the grand finale where they will pitch live to global business legends and secure their share of the USD 1.5 million prize pool.
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