On 6th June, Generation Africa and VC4A held an informational webinar for agripreneurs across Africa eyeing this year’s GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize. The competition will award two agripreneurs, one male and one female, each a $50,000 grand prize award for the most innovative, scalable business venture and business model. An additional four exceptional agripreneurs will be awarded for their innovative solutions that are contributing towards environmental conservation and community empowerment.
The webinar had an attendance of over 100 agripreneurs. It provided a valuable opportunity to share insights about the Competition, as well as tips on how to make applications stand out, review the criteria set by judges, and share experiences from the competition from previous GoGettaz winners.
About Generation Africa
Generation Africa is a partnership initiative that brings together different stakeholders to strengthen the ecosystem for young agripreneurs in Africa. Anchored on four pillars: inspiration, curation and support; research and advocacy; and ecosystem development framework, Generation Africa is on a mission of helping young agripreneurs grow their businesses through mentorship and coaching, funding opportunities and identifying whilst offering solutions to some of the unmet needs for agripreneurs.
Generation Africa hosts two innovation challenges each year: the GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition for agripreneurs, and the Pitch AgriHack competition, an agritech innovation challenge.
How to make your GoGettaz Application Stand Out
One of the webinar’s guest speakers, Carol Mumo, is a Social Impact Manager at Yara East Africa and a competition application reviewer. She shared the key five categories that determine who will proceed to the next stage of the competitions: innovation, market, social and environmental impact, and leadership.
To increase their chances of winning the Competition, agripreneurs were advised to ensure their applications and CV are customized to the competition, use good grammar, have a clear business and revenue model, and be able to convince judges why their enterprises deserve funding from GoGettaz. Language is not a barrier, as agripreneurs can submit their application in their language of preference (including English and French).
Some of the most common mistakes made by agripreneurs while submitting their application include: copying and pasting information from the internet or from a previous application, as well as submitting incomplete applications. Another common mistake is submitting a business that is not yet registered, or sharing inactive websites and social media links or an ambiguous financial outlook.
Experiences from previous GoGettaz Winners
Bonolo Monthe: Co-Founder of Maungo Craft and Winner of the 2019 GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition
Maungo Craft is a social enterprise reintegrating neglected indigenous crops back into the food system to manufacture preservatives, jam, sauces amongst others. The start-up is transforming food systems by reducing water waste and promoting biodiversity as a climate change adaptation strategy.
When applying for the Competition, Bonolo advises youth agripreneurs to be authentic when sharing information about their enterprises and not to leave out any key information. Additionally, It is important they articulate their value proposition and showcase their impact.
It has been four years since Bonolo won the $50,000 grand prize award; this has enabled Maungo Craft to scale their business by purchasing new equipment, raw materials, labels, and bottles for marketing as well as hiring additional staff. Today, they are the first food company from Botswana selling on Amazon, a global e-commerce platform and they have also been featured by international media houses BBC and CNN.
Bonolo also sits at the Generation Africa Steering Committee. In 2021, she received a direct nomination to be a Food Systems Hero during the United Nations Food Systems Summit.
Isaac Sesi: Founder of Sesi Technologies and Winner of the 2019 GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition
Sesi Technologies has developed affordable technology solutions to help farmers reduce post-harvest losses and increase their farm productivity. The GrainMate moisture meter helps farmers measure moisture content in their grains before storage while GrainMate’s warehouse monitor helps one to monitor microclimate conditions in the warehouses during storage. Their latest product, ZeroFly hermetic storage bag, is a superior hermetic storage solution that can keep grains safe for up to three years without any risk of spoilage.
Sesi advised agripreneurs eyeing this year’s competition to give their best at every stage in the application process, avoid use of jargons and, if possible, ask another person to review their application before submission to identify if there are mistakes made that need to be corrected.
With the grand prize award, Sesi has expanded his operations by adding new products to his portfolio, purchasing new equipment, and expanding his staff.
Both Bonolo and Sesi are recipients of the inaugural scholarship by Generation Africa, to pursue their Masters in Business Creation at the University of Utah. This opportunity is only availed to the Top 12 finalists.
The GoGettaz competition is currently open! Take advantage of the remaining days to submit your application.
