Last year during TEDGlobal Erik, Ndesanjo and I were rather stunned to be invited to a press conference where President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete, Dr. Larry Brilliant of Google.org and Bruce McNamer of Technoserve announced the ‘Believe Begin Become’ business plan competition. The competition ran in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. From the 5000 submissions entered in Kenya, 100 were selected as winners and a movie about them is currently being made by Carol Pineau. Carol made the highly acclaimed ‘Africa is Open for Business’ documentary, and also spoke about entrepreneurship during TED.
To view a full list of the 100 winners, please click here. There are businesses that range from Biogas production,rural cyber-cafe’s to high end Art galleries. Just reading through the list inspired optimism in me, and I think there are some really good ideas showcased there. There is also a blog, do check it out here.