Heritiaina Randriamananatahina, 22-year-old agriculture entrepreneur from Madagascar was Wednesday declared winner of the US$25,000 Anzisha Grand Prize for African Youth Entrepreneurship.
In a statement, the organisers, African Leadership Academy and The MasterCard Foundation disclosed that the winner emerged out of the 12 Anzisha Prize finalists hand-picked from an applicant pool of 550 entrepreneurs from 32 African countries.
The statement pointed out that this year Anzisha Prize celebrated increased representation of winners from francophone countries as the first runner-up was environmental entrepreneur Yaye Souadou Fall, 21, from Senegal who would receive US$15,000 while agricultural entrepreneur N’guessan Koffi Jacques Olivier, 19, from Cote d’Ivoire was the second runner-up and would receive US$12,500.
”The presence of two agriculture entrepreneurs in the top three is emblematic of the important role agriculture plays in Africa’s economies,” it was noted.
”Agriculture represented the sector with the largest share of applicants for the prize this year. The Agriculture Sector Prize was also claimed by N’guessan Koffi Jacques Olivier who demonstrated the potential for agriculture to create jobs for youth.”
Heritiaina is the founder of Fiombonana, an agro-processing enterprise that manufactures dairy products and confectioneries using only Malagasy raw materials, employing farmers and providing local job opportunities.
The organisers said Heritiaina was selected from a competitive pool of diverse entrepreneurs from all over Africa and for the first time ever, Anzisha Prize was pleased to award one of the top prizes to a finalist from Madagascar, creating a truly pan-African network of entrepreneurs who represent Africa’s best youth entrepreneurs.
As the grand prize-winner, he impressed a pan-African panel of judges with his venture response to a real need within his community, effective business model, job-creation potential, scalability, and demonstrated leadership potential.
Fiombonana has enjoyed significant success to date including sizeable growth as Fiombonana produces 800kg of cheese a week, with potential for rapid and low cost expansion due to innovations such as reverse-engineering machinery for food processing.
”I am so excited to win the Anzisha Prize for 2016, even though I had to drop out of school when I was in grade six. My hard work in my business is paying off. I appreciate the training I have already received so far. Now that I have won, I will invest in my own education and grow my business,” said Heritiaina.
The first runner up for the prize, Yaye Souadou Fall from Senegal and founder of E-cover, is also the first Senegalese entrepreneur ever in the top three in the history of Anzisha Prize.
The core need the venture meets is to repurpose the many discarded tyres that are available in her home city, Dakar, into multi-purpose tiles for paving playgrounds, pavements, roads, and other surfaces.
”Yaye believes that youth can be agents of change to solve the problems that Africa faces and can drive pursuit of opportunities for economic growth. Her win will enable her to build the production capacity that her venture desperately needs in order to meet customer demand,” the statement noted.
N’guessan Koffi Jacques Olivier from Cote d’ Ivoire is said to be the remarkable second runner up who founded Yaletite Entrepreneurship Group CI. Yaletite Entrepreneurship Group CI is an agricultural group with the aim of producing and selling chocolate and food crops for profit and mobilizing youth for agricultural employment.
”It is unique for the manner in which Koffi operates his farm, through modern methods to ensure maximum yields during processing. Koffi has managed to tirelessly pursue this innovative venture, and create employment for 35 people,” the statement revealed.
”Koffi creates improved livelihoods for over 100 households through access to innovative farming practices.”
Source PANA
