Tanzania: Absa Co-Sponsors Fintech, Health Tech Youth Entrepreneurs

ABSA Bank Tanzania has announced the youth entrepreneurial winners of the Wazo Challenge Tanzania Demo Day.

The programme was managed and organised by Startup Réseau; an India-headquartered startup accelerator which kick-started its East Africa expansion with the inaugural edition of the ‘Wazo Challenge Tanzania’, announced in February this year.

Wazo Challenge Tanzania focused on 5 thematic areas – Financial Services, Healthcare, Agriculture, Energy/Utility and Education.

As a part of the programme, Startup Réseau hosted a Venture Bootcamp, wherein 10 high-potential founders were selected for a 4-week venture mentorship and leadership development bootcamp, that was delivered by successful founders, industry leaders, domain experts and investors from Startup Réseau’s global network.

The Bank’s Managing Director, Abdi Mohamed said at the event that Wazo Challenge Tanzania was based on 12 startups selected from an application pool of 150 startups which focused on 5 themes.

Absa being the co-sponsor saw the need to support youth with innovative ideas which also aimed at impacting communities and bringing people’s possibilities to life, and this at Absa we say is Africanacity.

He said Absa Bank has a major role of being a force for good to the community and ensures that youth are highly supported considering there is a bright future in store for them and their daring spirit of making a business idea into reality marks ‘the dream come true’ for entrepreneurial footsteps in the business world.

“Our bank plays a big role in supporting enterprise development in the country and we ensure this impact flows down to the communities as we play a major role in the society by being a force for good. These youth will again set footprints in the business world as they aspire to not only expand from being just startups but to improving economies and adding value to the society,” said Absa’s Head of Marketing and Corporate Relations, Aron Luhanga.

The one-month long venture development bootcamp operated from March – April this year having winners compete for a cash grant of 10,000 US dollars determined by the stage of startups, the founders’ vision, uniqueness, market opportunities and clarity of business model.

The grant money was disbursed as top-3 prizes of 5,000 US dollars (Kikoba App), 3,000 US dollars (Mipango App) and 2,000 US dollars (MedPack)