Applications are now open for the RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneur Competition 2019. Young African Entrepreneurs Competition (RUYAEC) to catalyze entrepreneurship through the promotion of business innovation and also, provision of seed funding to young entrepreneurs with creative and innovative business ideas among African youth.

Moreover, RUYAEC invites young African entrepreneurs and incubates to compete for 20 awards to showcase their innovations, enterprises and business concepts and propositions. The awards will be delivered at the Cape Coast, Ghana during the RUFORUM Annual General Meeting convening 2-6 December 2019.

The RUYAEC operates within one of RUFORUM’s values and principles of creativity seeking to offer opportunities to develop innovative solutions both in addressing the problems faced by smallholder farmers and in managing research projects in remote areas.

Further, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is a network of 114 Universities in 38 African countries announce the 2019 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition (RUYAEC).

Award Categories

RUFORUM targets to award 20 awards in the following fields:

• Agribusiness
• ICTs
• Health
• Engineering
• Natural resources
• Meteorology
• Transport
• Tourism
  among other areas

Award

RUFORUM targets to award 20 awards each at US$ 2,000 and all winners will be sponsored to participate in the 2019 RUFORUM AGM to be held on 2 – 6 December 2019 in Cape Coast, Ghana.

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from enterprises and individuals that meet the following eligibility criteria.

• Persons with an established business enterprise and/or those with innovations that can potentially be commercialized and/or those with business concepts
• Further, the business enterprise/potential enterprise should have a defined business model that showcases the innovativeness of the proposed enterprise/business/innovation.
• Likewise, Persons in the age category 16-34 years
• Submissions should be in English or French using the template provided.
• Further, be a citizen and resident of the targeted West African region (West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo) countries.
• Not one of the 2016 and 2018 Young Innovators Awardees.