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Ten African entrepreneurs will compete in Kigali, Rwanda, next month for $1.5 million in grants from Africa's Business Heroes, the pitch competition run by Alibaba Philanthropy and the Jack Ma Foundation, the charity of Chinese billionaire and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma.
The finalists were picked from more than 24,000 applications submitted from all 54 African countries. They will pitch to judges at the grand finale on Dec. 1 and Dec. 2.
The winner takes home $300,000. The first runner-up gets $250,000 and the second runner-up $150,000, while each of the other seven finalists receives $100,000. A further $100,000 is set aside for global immersion training.
Who made the cut
The 2026 group comes from eight countries, with Egypt and Kenya supplying two finalists each.
Salma Tammam of REME-D Company for Laboratory Equipment and Chemicals and Ahmed Shaaban of Simplex for Software Development and Industrial Solutions represent Egypt, in healthcare and manufacturing. Kenya's entrants are Naom Monari of health technology firm Bena Care Ltd. and Louisa Gathecha of Bottle Logistics East Africa Ltd.
Kelvin Umechukwu of Bumpa, a Nigerian business software company, carries Nigeria's hopes. South Africa's Jess Roussos runs education technology company BluLever Education Pty Ltd., and Tanzania's Joseph Paul leads health technology startup Dawa Mkononi.
Agriculture is the best-represented sector, with three finalists. They are Samson Fentaye of Ethiopia's Thur Biotech Manufacturing Plc, Gildas Zodome of BIO PHYTO in Benin and Appessika Adanin Laurent Koffi of Côte d'Ivoire's GREEN AGRO VALLEY CI.
Monari said she had applied four years running before getting past the first stage. "I started applying to ABH four years ago, and this is the first time I have made it past the application stage," she said.
Ma's Africa bet
Africa's Business Heroes is the main program of the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative, which Ma launched in 2018 to back entrepreneurs across the continent. This year's event is the eighth edition, and the second in a row to end in Kigali after the Rwandan capital hosted last December's finale.
Ma, a former English teacher, founded Alibaba in his Hangzhou apartment in 1999 and built it into China's biggest e-commerce group. He stepped down as chairman in 2019 and has since spent more of his public time on education and philanthropy. Forbes lists him among China's billionaires.
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