Chris Kwekowe, founder of Slatecube, has been announced the overall winner of the 5th Anzisha youth entrepreneurship award. The judges were impressed by Slatecube which offers a job-relevant skills learning platform and job placement services.
Chris won the $25,000 (Sh2.6M) Grand Prize while Cameroonian fintech entrepreneur Fabrice Alomo walked away with $15,000. Fashion entrepreneur Mabel Suglo from Ghana was 2nd Runner up winning $12,500.
“I did not believe that I could have won the prize when the competition started. But I feel confident in what I can achieve now given the capital and training that I have received through the Anzisha Prize. I congratulate all the other finalists as I believe they were all very impressive and look forward to engaging them as we support each other to grow going forward,” says Chris.
Chris Kwekowe founded Slatecube to increase job access for youth through creating a platform on which they can build job-relevant skills and linking them with virtual internship opportunities that enable them to develop experience. His vision for the venture is to see it grow into a wide-scale provider of relevant job market access, with increasing ability to open doors for job seekers.
Slatecube has had significant success to date with potential for scale and will serve as an inspiring beacon for other youth interested in entrepreneurship.
The 2015 Anzisha Prize Finalists were celebrated on Tuesday, November 17th 2015 in Rivonia, Johannesburg. The keynote speaker was Alex Okosi, pioneer of MTV Networks in Africa, a staunch proponent for a truly African voice for youth.
The 12 finalists for Anzisha Prize for 2015 were selected from an impressive initial pool of 494 young entrepreneurs, up from 339 applications in 2014. The Anzisha Prize, a partnership with Mastercard Foundation, is proud to have attracted applicants from 33 African countries.
Sector Prize in Agriculture was awarded to Chantal Butare, founder of Kinazi Dairy Cooperative. Chantal’s cooperative collects milk from over 3,000 families in her community, and processes the milk for sale.
