Nigerian Wins Africa’s Premier Award for Youth Entrepreneurship

Twenty-two year-old Chris Kwekowe has been declared the 2015 winner of $25,000 (N4.96 million) grand prize of Africa’s premier award for youth entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa.Kwekowe created a platform called Slatecube, which offers job-relevant skills learning and job placement.He displaced 11 other finalists to win the plum prize. The 1st runner up, Cameroon’s Fabrice Alomo, 22 of Fintech Entrepreneur, got $15,000 and Mabel Suglo, 22 from Ghana, who is a fashion entrepreneur, was the 2nd runner-up and got $12,500.While announcing the winners of this year’s Anzisha Prize edition, the organisers revealed that the decision to pick a winner was challenging given the talented line-up of finalists.The organisers also revealed that the 12 finalists were picked from an impressive initial pool of 494 young entrepreneurs.Kwekowe said this about his victory: “I did not believe that I could have won the prize when the competition started. But I feel confident in what I can achieve now, given the capital and training that I have received through the Anzisha Prize. I congratulate all the other finalists as I believe they were all very impressive and look forward to engaging them as we support each other to grow going forward.”Regards,