Submit Your Best Agri-Food Business Venture and Get a Chance to Win $50,000

Deadline: 21 July 2019

Generation Africa is seeking applications for its Gogettaz Agripreneur Prize to identify innovative entrepreneurial ventures in the agri-food sector founded by young people (age 35 and under) from across the African continent.

Generation Africa is a partnership initiative with a vision to strengthen the ecosystem for youth entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector across the continent. Founding partners are Econet, a global telecommunications, media, energy and technology group founded on the African continent, and Yara International, a global crop nutrition company, founded in Norway.

The Gogettaz Agripreneur Prize, a high profile competition and media campaign, will reach millions of talented young Africans with the message that agripreneurship offers a compelling and attractive business opportunity. A televised pitch event at the African Green Revolution Forum in September 2019 will see twelve finalists rewarded with a prize package of expert support, and one male and one female entrepreneur selected as grand prize winners of $50k to grow their businesses.

Eligibility Criteria

The Entrepreneur
- Entrepreneurs must be age 35 or under on the day of submission to the online GoGettaz Afripreneur Prize competition, and be legally recognised as an adult in the country of his/her nationality.
- Entrepreneurs must hold nationality (with official ID) from any of the 54 nations of the African Union.
- Entrepreneurs must be the founder or co-founder of the enterprise he or she represents in the competition and play an active role in its operations and leadership.
- Entrepreneurs must have no criminal record related to corruption, tax evasion, financial impropriety, felony or other offences, and be willing to provide a signed declaration to that effect, if requested.
The Venture
- Venture must have its headquarters in one of the 54 countries of the African Union and must be officially registered by 1 August 2019.
- Venture must be designed to be financially sustainable, either as a for-profit business or a market-based social venture with a business model that includes revenue generation – at least in part – and aiming for non-donor-based sustainability over time.
- Venture must play a role in the agri-food sector or support the development of the agri-food sector through an innovation, disruption or original process improvement across the food value chain from seed to fork.
- The “agri-food sector” may be defined as businesses including:
  - Agri-food research & development
  - Primary food production
  - Crop nutrition
  - Irrigation
  - Mechanisation, automation or robotics
  - Crop protection
  - Hydroponics or urban farming
  - Transport, distribution, storage or logistics
  - Food processing
  - Packaging or marketing
  - Food retail or service
  - Waste management or recycling
  - Digital or technology solutions/services to the agri-food sector
  - Innovative finance solutions/services to the agri-food sector
  - Renewable energy or environmental solutions/services to the agri-food sector