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A total of 29 young African entrepreneurs from 11 countries gathered for the third cohort of eFounders Scholarships. The two-week program took place on the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, China. The event was organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Alibaba Business School. Jack Ma is Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group and UNCTAD's Special Adviser on SMEs and Young Entrepreneurs. Jack Ma has promised to use five years to empower 1,000 young entrepreneurs from developing countries, and the eFounders grant is part of his promise.
Out of 1,000 young entrepreneurs, 200 of them will come from African countries. This shows Ma's commitment to supporting African entrepreneurs and helping them succeed in the digital world. They all work in the spirit of sustainable development goals. This involves making sure everyone is part of the digital economy. Jack Ma and UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi spent time with the badistants in Hangzhou. According to Ma, he will work with UNCTAD to enable young African entrepreneurs to help individuals in their countries build inclusive business models for the digital world.
Kituyi said that Alibaba and UNCTAD are using the third cohort to help new generations of entrepreneurs maximize the opportunities brought by the e-commerce revolution. Selection for those who attended the program took place through the application process. The participants are all platform-based founders / co-founders in the areas of African tourism, big data, Fintech technology, logistics or e-commerce. The program gave the opportunity to the badistants to experience the first-hand contribution that technology and e-commerce have made to China. Alibaba has gone through many challenges and inadequate infrastructure when it was founded in 1999. These are the same challenges that African entrepreneurs are currently going through. This puts Alibaba in a good position to share the lessons learned from its trip with African entrepreneurs aiming to build technology companies on the continent.
Preselected contractors have had time with local practitioners and Alibaba executives. This allowed them to learn from their experience in innovation, cross-border commerce and marketing, cloud computing, logistics, payments and e-commerce, which allowed them to learn from their markets. The course included New Retail and involved visiting Cainiao's Intelligent Warehouse, Rural Taobao Service Stations and Hema Supermarket. In addition, participants visited Alibaba 's ecosystem partners. They had a cashless economy experience in Hangzhou. Various topics such as gender, global trends in e-commerce were discussed in interactive sessions
According to Brian Wong, Vice President of Global Initiatives, the course aims to empower young entrepreneurs to become digital role models. country. He added that the initiatives are aimed at inspiring young entrepreneurs by sharing their own stories and showing them a real impact that can be brought by inclusive business models in people's daily lives. Alibaba hosted the inaugural clbad of African entrepreneurs in November 2017 before hosting the inaugural clbad of Asian entrepreneurs in March 2018. Graduates used the program to make significant steps. They have since become major players in digital transformation in their own countries. This helped them organize rounds of investment and develop their programs. Alibaba and UNCTAD continue to provide formal support to participants after graduation.
Andreas Koumato, one of the program participants, said the program had changed his thinking. The 26-year-old added that initially, most entrepreneurs focused on investor satisfaction. However, now he sees the importance of having his clients at the top of his agenda followed by employees and investors coming in last. Koumato is the founder of the Chad-based Mossosouk e-commerce platform
Bellow is the list of badistants of the third eFounders program and their respective countries.
Kenya
Caroline Wanjiku the founder of Daproim Africa. Daproim Africa is a social enterprise that equips companies, governments and research companies with data management services. In addition, the platform provides employment opportunities and training in data management to African university graduates to help them develop their relevant skill set.
Nancy Amunga, founder of Dana Communications Company. The company is a logistics platform that provides messaging services for e-commerce platforms in Africa.
Other participants from Kenya included Gladys King's ZOA Tech, Daniel Yu of Sokowatch, Alloys Meshack of Sendy, Mwai Mworia of M-Paya and Caroline Kariuki. of the Sarai Africa Sewing House
Rwanda
Muhirwa Clement, co-founder of Uplus Mutual Partners. The company is a fintech firm that specializes in mobile payments between peers.
Leah Uwihoreye, the founder of Golden Thoughts. Golden Thoughts is an e-commerce platform for local artisans, especially women, who sell their products.
South Africa
Roy Borole the founder of Thanga. Thanga is an artificial intelligence studio that develops AI resources to help specific brand consumers. It does this by helping consumers tell more compelling stories for use on social media.
Arnaud Blanchet, the founder of Shopit. Shopit is an e-commerce platform that helps moms and pop store owners in rural areas and South African townships to compare selling prices and buy at the best price.
Another contractor from SA was Bbadon Engelbrecht from Hoorah Online Shops. 19659002] Nigeria
Chijioke Dozie the founder of OneFi. OneFi is a fintech start-up that offers bank and unbanked customers access to loans and payments via an Android application.
Tochukwu Uwakeme, the founder of KemResources, an e-commerce site that connects rural farmers to buyers around the world.
Other entrepreneurs in Nigeria included Olugbenga Agboola of Flutterwave and Malik Babalola. from Gloo.
Uganda
David Gonahasa the founder of Roundbob who is an online travel and experience booking site. The platform aims to help the growing middle clbad of Africa to get affordable travel options.
Other entrepreneurs from Uganda were Francis Nkurunungi of Xente and Nielsimms Sangho of Intership.
Egypt
Hany Girgis the founder of Masry Market. It is an online site that helps consumers get local alternatives to everyday products at competitive prices while offering support to local SMEs.
The other Egyptian entrepreneur is Hatem Ayoub of Tripdizer
Zambia
Bright Chinyundu the founder of Broadpay. Njavwa Mutambo of Musanga and Chinedu Koggu of ProBase
Tunisia
Sami Tounsi founder of Monresto, a last mile logistic platform connecting customers to local sellers. and independent drivers in the same market for on-demand services.
Sadok Ghanouch founder of the E-taxi platform that offers services to customers using a digital transport market.
Cameroon
Cedric Atangana founder of Wecashup has Pan -The African payment site that allows online customers to accept all 155 mobile payment platforms found in Africa using a single platform [19659002] Chad
Andreas Koumato the founder of the Mossosouk platform
Algeria
Taoufik Mousselma the founder of Maisonmaligne .com. This is an ecommerce site that uses AI tools to power and optimize its catalog in various markets. The platform works in partnership with manufacturers based in North Africa.
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