Bachelor of Commerce students emerged as finalists in the recently concluded Jumia Entrepreneurship Challenge competition hosted by MTN.

 

The event widely described as the first of its kind Pan-African entrepreneurship competition, brought together over 1,000 entrepreneurs, students and investors targeting more than 60 universities in 13 countries across Africa.

 

The two students Lawrence Njihia and Goodwin Olang – Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance and Marketing and Accounting and Marketing respectively, learnt about the competition through Jumia Kenya’s activation on campus.

 

The competition had a series of rounds each of which the duo competed against different teams, most submitting start-up ideas just like them. The first round had about 50 teams that submitted their ideas to the MTN|Jumia online application system and out of those the review team selected about 14 teams to pitch live to a panel of judges at Jumia’s offices in Kenya.

 

Some of the teams they competed against included; Magazine Reel  – a campus news site platform in Kenya based at @IbizAfrica here in Strathmore; Toimart – a startup that offers small businesses and individuals a platform for selling baby care items and; Trace – a mobile and web business that helps society to trace missing and lost loved ones.

 

The pair won the Kenya round competition together with Trace and Toimart teams, fitting in the top 23 entries from across the continent. The final round of the competition selected only three top entries amongst the 23 and was held in South Africa at the end of last month. Three teams from Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania were selected.

 

Lawrence and Goodwin’s team, showcased their business JiJi, a fashion industry startup for African designers created to offer channel management assistance through partnerships with manufacturers and key service industries, as well as a final online shopping platform to sell their wares to the already existing online consumer market.

 

 

Congratulations gentlemen on being finalists.