The search is on for Kenya’s most successful and industrious young businessmen and women following the launch of nominations for this year’s Bizna Young Entrepreneurs Awards (YEA) 2019.
This is the second edition of the Awards, which have been designed to identify upcoming and industrious entrepreneurs between 18 and 35 years old with great business acumen.
The Awards have been initiated by Bizna Kenya and seek to create a network of outstanding young entrepreneurs by providing them with a platform recognize and celebrate young entrepreneurs based on their business performance, innovation, quality of products and services and relations with suppliers and customers.
The entrepreneurs can apply for nominations or endorsed through the Awards e-portal: www.yea.co.ke/nominate. Nominations close on 11th October 2019.
Voting will be open for the public and there will be two winners in every category and two for the overall prize – male and female in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category.
Last year’s winners included Expedition Maasai Safaris CEO Pancras Mwangi who won in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year – (Male) and Michelle Ntalami of Malini Naturals (Female). Other winners included Anyiko Owoko (Service Industry); Abel Mutua (Entertainment); Rodgers Kirwa (Agribusiness); Tim Kipchumba of Questworks (Real Estate); and Samuel Majani of Ghafla (Digital Technology), among others.The overall winner in YEA 2019 will pocket Ksh 1 million to take their business to the next level. All YEA 2019 winners will get all year round business support and enterprise development services including training, coaching, mentorship and networking services.
Commenting on the second edition of the Awards, Bizna Kenya CEO Tonnie Mello urged Kenyans to nominate deserving young businessmen and women from all sectors of the economy so that eventual winners can mirror the true success of Kenya’s young entrepreneurs.
“We want to use Young Entrepreneurs Awards not only as a platform to inspire more young people to start businesses but also to advocate for policies that can ensure a favourable environment for starts-up to thrive,” says Mello.
The Awards’ judging criteria is based on the entrepreneurs profile, business profile as well as endorsement by customers and suppliers. It also looks for innovation and creativity, social responsibility and effectiveness of business operations.
Bizna Kenya is a business portal that supports and promotes small businesses through provision of marketing and enterprise development services to small businesses and entrepreneurs.
It empowers businesses to create awareness about their products and services, market products and services to a wide range of clients and link them to suppliers and key business resources.
