East Africa entrepreneurs finalists in Sustainable Living Awards

Two East Africans are among the top seven finalists in last year’s young entrepreneurs contest run by Unilever.

Charles Batte, 27 and Daviv Opio, 26 – both from Uganda – were feted earlier this year at the 2014 Unilever ‘Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs’ Awards held in London on January 27.

The annual competition, now in its second year, taps practical innovative solutions to the world’s biggest sustainability challenges.

David Opio created Ensibuuko, a mobile and web application that integrates SMS and mobile money services, to handle savings and enable loans to smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Charles Batte, on the other hand, founded Tree Adoption Uganda (TAU), which provides mentoring and training funded by trees planted by entrepreneurs themselves and sold to companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.

The overall winner of the 2014 Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards was 21-year-old Daniel Yu, founder of Reliefwatch, software that helps medical clinics in developing countries to digitize and manage inventory records for better patient outcomes.

He received funding support of €50,000 (Kshs 5.2 million) and the other six finalists €10,000 (Kshs 1 million) each.

The finalists will take part in a 12-month mentoring programme to hone their entrepreneurial skills.

The Awards programme, delivered by Unilever in partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), recognizes young people aged 30 and under who have come up with practical, scalable initiatives designed to tackle the challenge of sustainable living.

“We created these awards for young people because they will be the guardians of sustainable development long into the future. Young entrepreneurs are really welcoming access to the right support to help them lead the development of entrepreneurial responses to a changing world,” said Unilever CEO Paul Polman.  The 2014 awards attracted 60 percent more entries compared, he added.

The seven finalists took part in a four-week online development programme, followed by a three-day accelerator workshop in Cambridge, United Kingdom to help develop their ideas.

They pitched their initiatives to a panel of judges in London, including entrepreneurs, sustainability experts and senior business executives.

“This is great for us in East Africa to have young Ugandan entrepreneurs make it to the top of such a competitive global award,” said Marc Engel, Unilever CEO for East Africa and emerging markets. “It is a clear sign that East Africa and Africa as a whole has a talented pool of young innovative thinkers who are ready to lead from the front in matters sustainability and to find local solutions to global challenges.”