Deadline: March 31, 2019.

The Anzisha Program is a partnership between African Leadership Academy and Mastercard Foundation that seeks to fundamentally and significantly increase the number of job generative entrepreneurs in Africa. We believe that a key to doing so is to test, implement and then share models for identifying, training and connecting high potential, very young entrepreneurs (15 to 22 year olds) so that many more organisations have better collective success in creating a pipeline of entrepreneurs with the capabilities for scale.

 

ELIGIBILITY

1. You must be between 15 and 22 years old with an ID document or Passport to present as evidence. Anyone born before November 1, 1996 or after October 31, 2004 will not be considered.
2. You must be a national of an African country with a business based in Africa for African customers/ beneficiaries.
3. Your business must be up and running. The Anzisha Prize is not for great ideas or business plans – you must have already started, and be able to prove it! You have time to get started now and have tangible results to share before applications open.
4.  Your business, invention or social project can be in any field or industry (science and technology, civil society, arts and culture, sports, etc.). Any kind of venture is welcome to apply.
5. Individuals who apply must be one of the founding members of a business (for example, 2 or 3 co-founders who started up the project together)

 

BENEFITS

 

1. Each of the 20 finalists will now receive a $7,500 USD fellowship package with ALA’s  Youth Entrepreneur Support Unit (YES-U) which includes the Anzisha Week bootcamp, mentorship and consulting services, travel opportunities, networking opportunities and business equipment.

2. Annually, the Grand Prize Winner receives $25,000 USD, 1^st Runner-up receives $15,000 USD and 2^nd Runner-up receives $12,500 USD. The remaining nine finalists will receive $2,500 USD each.

3. In addition, a $25,000 USD prize category has been created to reward performance of Anzisha Fellows once they are in the fellowship, recognising entrepreneurs who have extracted the most value from Anzisha program to date.

Specifically, the Anzisha Prize runs the following programs for fellows:

• Anzisha Week bootcamp, where you are taught by the world-renowned African Leadership Academy entrepreneurial leadership faculty and external business mentors.
• An Experts-in-Residence program, bringing global experts and small cohorts of Anzisha fellows together for 1-on-1 mentoring for up to a week.
• The Global Speaker Circuit, providing financial support for fellows to attend global conferences and promote their message and businesses.
• Anzisha Regional Fellow Indabas, bringing together Anzisha Fellows and African Leadership Academy alumni every year.
• The Youth Entrepreneur Support Unit (YES-U), which provides consulting and training support to Anzisha Fellows, particularly in their first year of the fellowship.
• Peer mentoring and social network, to engage with other fellows via Facebook, WhatsApp and other channels.

 

OFFICIAL LINK

 

Anzisha Prize