The 6 startups to represent Africa at AFIF Entrepreneurship Awards

Six African SMEs have been nominated to represent their nations at the 2017 Africa Finance and Investment Forum (AFIF) Entrepreneurship Awards.

The event is supported by the Rabobank Foundation and will take place at the Strathmore University in Nairobi from the 13 to 16 February 2017.

The awards will seek to provide those selected with the necessary support to grow their businesses. The finalists will not only receive free accreditation to join the AFIF’s full programme, which includes conferences, training and B2B networking opportunities, but the award winner will also receive a cash prize as well as national and international media promotion for a full year.

The AFIF Entrepreneurship Awards look to celebrate some of the top SMEs Africa has to offer

The following SMEs were chosen for their social, economic, and ecologic impact, as well as growth their growth potential and job creation:

• Aybar Engineering (Ethiopia) – Aybar Engineering created what they call the Aybar BBM, a technology that stops crops from drowning due to excess watering by storing the excess water for later use
• RnG Company limited (Kenya) – RnG sells packaged biofertilizers which produce sufficient groundnut production. They also collect groundnuts from farmers to produce cooking oil.
• EuroFresh Exotics (Kenya) – Besides providing training for smallholding farmers, Euro Fresh also produces and exports a wide variety of fresh fruit and veggies.
• First Atlantic Semiconductors & Microelectronics (Nigeria) – This innovative company developed an intelligent soil collection solution known as Zenvus. This product uses a number of electronic sensors to improve farming productivity.
• Kimolo Super Rice (Tanzania) – Kimolo Super Rice specialises in processing, branding and marketing their own rice and sunflower oil. They ensure that their methods are environmentally friendly by using smallholding farmers since they produce paddy using run-off water systems from nearby hills.
• Eco Act (Tanzania) – Eco Act aims to address the challenges facing urban waste management as well as issues including plastic pollution, deforestation and climate change. They also recycle consumer waste to produce environmentally friendly plastic lumber.

“We are delighted to announce the finalists for the AFIF Entrepreneurship Award 2017 after a really difficult selection process. The innovation and creativity of African-based SMEs makes our job more difficult every year. We look forward to welcoming these and many more entrepreneurs at the AFIF 2017 in Nairobi,” said Inês Bastos, EMRC’s senior project manager in a press release.

Featured image: Ninara via Flickr