Six Nigerian young agripreneurs are among 25 young African agripreneurs who have advanced to the “boot camp” final round of the African Development Bank’s AgriPitch competition.
A statement by APO Media group stated that the six Nigerian agricpreneurs were among the 25 who scaled the screening conducted by the organisers of the event out of 2,500 applicants from 30 countries with a total proposals of 605 submitted.
The Nigerian finalists are: Farmspeak Technology, One Kiosk and Releaf in the Start-up category; Foodlocker in the Mature Starts-up category and the duo of Baby Grubz and Farmz2u in the Women empowered category.
Nigeria and Kenya dominated the final list of shotlisted candidates each with six finalists.
The statement reads, “AgriPitch organizers received more than 2,500 applications and evaluated 605 proposals from 30 countries. The finalists, from 12 African nations, submitted promising proposals that best embraced the 2020 theme of “Driving Sustainable Nutrition and Gender Inclusivity in Africa’s Agri-Food Systems: Youth Agripreneurs Seize the Decade.”
“Finalists, all aged under 35, were selected under the competition’s ‘Start Up,’ ‘Mature Business’ and ‘Women-Empowered Business’ categories.
“It is encouraging to see that almost 62% of all AgriPitch 2020 applicants self-described as being women-led businesses or having women make up at least 50% of their management,” said Wambui Gichuri, the Bank’s Acting Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development.
“Word is spreading that AgriPitch is the competition where all qualified agripreneurs can get the training and support to grow their businesses,” she added.
The AgriPitch finals and winners’ ceremony will be held on 16th and 17th November.
In addition to receiving seed funding prizes and post-competition mentoring worth $120,000, AgriPitch winners will be invited for the AYAF online DealRoom, which connects expansion-ready, youth-led African businesses with global investors.
The final round offers young entrepreneurs in Africa’s agricultural sector the opportunity to pitch their agribusiness proposals online to a panel of experts and investors who will select the winners.
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