Business owners in East Africa are set to battle for the Founder of the Year Awards (FOYA) which seeks to acknowledge innovative and scalable businesses in the region.
The awards, now it the fourth edition themed “Have it All” have been extended to include entries from other East Africa counties including Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Burundi.
The fete has been a Kenyan affair since it started in 2016, attracting nominations in 14 categories.
The annual award seeks to award and celebrate outstanding young entrepreneurs who create jobs through the delivery of practical and commercially viable solutions that are innovative and sustainable.
Eligible young entrepreneurs in East Africa have until February 14, 2020, to get nominated for the 2020 FOYA awards whose aim is to also motivate entrepreneurs who are yet to start their own businesses to join the fray.
“What makes FOYA unique is the impact it has on young entrepreneurs. Rather than awarding successful seasoned entrepreneurs, we award the young founders running startups, “the founder of the awards, Innocent Moranga said.
“We are pleased to launch FOYA2020EA and are confident that this edition will prove bigger and better in terms of participation and quality of nominations’’’.
According to organizers, the 14 categories will be clustered to accommodate nominees who are under 30 and those above 30 years old but under 40, with over 5,000 entrepreneurs and support system actors expected to attend the award ceremony to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in June/July 2020.
Last year saw over 49,000 users access the FOYA website through which submission of the names of nominees for the awards and voting is done. The page recorded 143,598 views and a total of 53,567 votes were cast.
