Ignatius Ahumuza, 21, a Ugandan entrepreneur has won US$10,000 (Shs36.4m) Anzisha Prize at Africa’s premier awards for youngest entrepreneurs held on October 24, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ahumuza is among the fifteen (15) young African entrepreneurs who emerged as finalists from a field of more than 800 applicants for the seventh annual Anzisha Prize supported by African Leadership Academy (ALA) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
The Anzisha Prize celebrates and cultivates the next generation of young African entrepreneurial leaders who are creating job opportunities, solving local development problems and driving economies.
Ahumuza is one of the founders of Art Planet Academy, which provides practical agriculture training in schools.
Art Planet creates and innovates climate-smart farming technologies, tests them at demonstration farms and incorporates them into a practical agriculture training curriculum.
Art Planet works with 21 primary schools, 18 secondary schools, 2 universities and 4 institutions to deliver their training.
Art Planet also works with a school for 3 months and they have 4 training sessions a month for each of the schools. The children then replicate what they have learnt in their homes with the help of the trainers.
A few weeks ago, finalists flew to Johannesburg to attend a 10-day entrepreneurial leadership boot camp where they were coached on how to pitch their business to a panel of judges for a share of US$100,000 worth of prizes and support.
The grand prize winner received US$25,000, while the runners-up and third place winners received US$15,000 and US$12,500, respectively.
Ahumuza won a $10,000 agricultural prize funded by Louis Dreyfus Foundation.
