Kenyan entrepreneurs will soon turn their business ideas into thriving businesses through the ongoing annual Chase Bank Enablis ILO business Launchpad competition.
This is after a series of training conducted by Inoorero University in conjuction with Enablis Entrepreneurial Network East Africa, Chase Bank limited and the International Labour Organization closed its sessions on 23rd August.
Citing challenges facing Kenya at the moment, the Chief Operations Officer at Enablis Africa, Moses Mwaura,said the entrepreneurs have a better platform of coming up with good plans if they will align their focus on the challenges with the vision 2030 blue print.
“ One can analyze prevailing food crisis and strategies on how to make business opportunities out of them.Any meaningful business plan no matter how small must be aligned to Vision 2030” said Mwaura.
The competition has seen 2734 entrepreneurs trained in 20 counties across the country on best entrepreneurial strategies that entails how to write and approach fundable business plans.
The training is intended to equip the beneficiaries interested to participate in the competition through nurturing the existing entrepreneurial skills and enhancement of innovations to address the increasing rates of joblessness that has rocked the country. This was according to Prof. Henry Thairu, the Vice Chancellor of Inoorero University.
“Inoorero entered into this partnership because as an institution, it’s committed to nurturing entrepreneurship and innovation in Kenya. We can discourage tarmacking, or endless job hunting by converting beautiful ideas into money” said Thairu, at the final awareness and training workshop in Nairobi at KICC.
A total of Ksh. 3.5 million will be awarded to winners in seven categories in the Media, marketing and communication, Information and communication technology, agri-business and agri-processing, manufacturing and construction, arts, sports, logistics, tourism and recreation, business and
professional services, and green and ecological businesses.
The competition is set to close the submission of business plans by the end of August to evaluate and rank entrants, where 100 finalists will be announced on October 5th 2011. They will then proceed to further training and judging that will in turn end with this years winners unveiled at a gala in Nairobi.
The Enablis finalists will be entitled to Chase Bank accounts and free Enablis membership for a year. Selected finalists will also benefit from business development support from ILO’s Youth Entrepreneurship Facility.
Besides Chase Bank ,ILO, Inoorero University, the competition is supported by the Business Daily, Safaricom Foundation,MobiKash, Rhino Special Products and the Kenya ICT Board.
Launched at the G8 meeting in 2002 and founded by Accenture and Telesystem, in collaboration with the Government of Canada. Enablis Entrepreneurial Network East Africa, has been on the forefront in facilitating entrepreneurial skills development, access to finance, professional networking, and mentoring to ensure economic stimulation and entrepreneurial sustainability.
Enablis engages with entrepreneurs in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, and Argentina and has more than 1,500 entrepreneur members. In East Africa, Enablis currently has four hubs in Nairobi, Kisumu, Dar es Salaam and Kigali.
