Category Archives: scholarships

Idea Exchange: Agri, Bellagio, GSMA, Stanford

New, and ongoing, opportunities to apply for, including..

EDIT Chivas Regal announced  the first Kenyan edition of Chivas, The Venture, a  $1 million global search to find and support the next generation of social enterprise start-ups. 32 countries across 6 continents are taking part and only the most promising from each country will be selected as a global finalist. It is open to any for-profit-start-up that creates both financial value and a positive impact on the lives of others. Deadline for Kenyan social entrepreneurs to make submission is 30th November 2016. Kenya’s very own WEFARM, a farming information platform came 2nd at last year’s finals, securing $200,000 for their social enterprise.

EDIT Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa Executive Training Program: Intake 4 is now open. This prestigious program has been developed for mid-career journalists, financial professionals with an interest in financial journalism; government professionals responsible for public policy, communications and finance portfolios; and development practitioners and civil society professionals with an interest in African development and financial and economic data. The program value is $22, 000 USD, but Bloomberg Philanthropies with support from the Ford Foundation are generously funding each successful candidate on a scholarship basis. Scholarships include tuition, class materials, lunch and refreshments. The deadline for initial applications is 25 November 2016. Applications will be reviewed and places awarded on a first come first served basis. The BMIA Executive Training Program will begin in January 2017 and will be offered in Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi.

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EDIT Stanford SEED, which enables East Africa business owners to lead their regions to greater prosperity. The Seed Transformation is a comprehensive year-long program that includes six months of immersive general-management training in Nairobi, Kenya, led by Stanford GSB faculty and supported by trained local facilitators. It is targeted at founders and senior leaders of for-profit companies who want to grow and scale their companies. Deadline 31 October.

Vote in the OLX Social Media Awards  up to September 22.

TED Fellow: Apply to the TED Fellows program, that aims to find a new class of extraordinary thinkers and doers who are aged 21 to 40. The next cycle is from October 4 to November 13.

 EDIT Also  TEDGlobal is returning to Africa at Arusha in August 2017.

YALI Regional Leadership Center East Africa (RLC EA) is merit-based and open to young East African leaders.

EDIT  The Africa Region of the World Bank Group (WBG) is relaunching its fellowship program for Ph.D. students who are Sub-Saharan nationals. The program will increase the diverse workforce that is a priority for the Bank and its clients.

EDIT AIA, one of the world’s largest insurers, has created the AIA Blockchain Challenge, a virtual challenge that concludes with the chance to secure a pilot contract and a sizeable development grant of up to US$50,000.. (in) claims process, customer information and regulation, risk management & treasury efficiency, digital health..Applicable top entries will receive paid pilot opportunities. Submission deadline is November 20 (source)

EDIT  Apply for a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship, as the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is looking for 1,000 African leaders! Applications closes on 26 October. (source)

EDIT Recruiting AkiraChix class of 2017:  Every year for the last 5 years, AkiraChix has the pleasure of welcoming a group of young, hopeful, young girls from all over Kenya for our one-year training program. This program has continued to be offered at no cost to the students with classes in Web Design, Mobile application design, Graphic Design, Hardware design, Life Skills just to mention a few. If you or someone you know is interested in joining next years class please apply

EDIT Apply to join the next MasterCard Start Path Global – #StartPath program.  MasterCard partners with startups from around the world to help scale their businesses. The program enables companies to gain access to MasterCard’s global ecosystem and to break new markets through relationships with MasterCard and our customers. Some key features include: 6 month virtual program (take part from your home location),  2 immersion weeks at different cities and  no upfront equity in exchange for participation. Deadline is October 11.

EDIT  The Chezo Game Jam Competition is here. Chezo Gaming is an initiative to support the creation of games to address local challenges. The competition will take place from the 30th of September 2015 to the 2nd of October 2016. Winning teams (3) will receive a cash award of € 2,000 (US$2,200) and additional mentorship for up-to 3 months. Find out more here.

EDIT  The 5th edition of the  Pillars of Africa celebrates the extra-ordinary achievements of the young people of Africa, and is open for nominations in entrepreneur,  humanitarian, arts & clulture, business icon and sports categories, up to  October 28  (via @pillarsofafrica on twitter; or Facebook page Pillars of Africa).

EDIT The African Leaders of Tomorrow (ALT) Scholarship Program commemorates the late Nelson Mandela’s commitment to social justice and equity. It supports young African professionals to become leaders in public policy and administration. The ALT Scholarship Program grants full scholarships based on merit to women and men from sub-Saharan Africa to pursue a Master’s degree in public administration, public policy or public finances in Canada. Application deadline is October 14 2016

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Adansonia, a unique pan-African opportunity, gives one the tools to be part of a wide network of similarly minded ambitious entrepreneurs from Ghana to Uganda, from Nigeria to South Africa or Kenya through an intense one-week course by  Bocconi Business School, and  international pitching event.

Africa Business Fellowship places talented American professionals within leading African companies for a minimum of 3 and up to 6 months. Through this joint partnership, Econet (founded and led by Strive Masiyiwa, and also the Fellowship’s benefactor), Africa Leadership Network and MLT will offer this unparalleled opportunity for American professionals to gain invaluable insight and hands-on experience in African businesses. Apply by November 1.

Appsafrica Innovation Awards recognise innovation and excellence in African mobile and tech. Supported by Mobile Monday, the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), Uber and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) winners will be announced at the awards party on November 14th, 2016 in Cape Town. Entries will be charged $60 per category that is entered. Start-ups who are less than 12 months old will not be charged subject to approval and can contact us for a discount code. Deadline is September 20.

creative

Africa Tech Challenge has 15 teams from Technical Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVETs) in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and Uganda competing for Ksh 200,000 ($2,000)  as well as full scholarships to study for their Masters’ in top engineering universities in China. AVIC says the Africa Tech Challenge has armed over 290 students with technical skills.

At the AGRF 2016 in Nairobi in September 2016, commitments were made to fund African agriculture with $30 billion, including $24 billion from the African Development Bank, $5 billion from the Gates Foundation and $3 billion from the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Advance Africa has several opportunities including British Chevening scholarships for international students to study in UK.

Government of Kenya scholarships to study in the UK, China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Oman, Hungary, Cuba, Slovakia, Egypt, Korea, Morocco, Ireland etc.

GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund is now open for applications from start-ups in Africa and selected Asian countries, offering funding: grants of between  £100,000 and  £ 250,000. Applicants must provide a matching of at least 50% of the amount of funding requested Deadline is 18 September.

Heva Fund: HEVA is ready to receiving applications for its investment cycle,  investing between KES 100,000 and 1,000,000 to help creatives grow their businesses.

Advance Africa has several opportunities including Mo Ibrahim Foundation fellowships for young Africans.

Apply to Pitch AgriHack to win investment for your e-agriculture start-up! The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the support of partners including the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (CABI) and m:lab East Africa, is launching the pilot edition of Pitch AgriHack, a new component of its AgriHack Talent Programme. The entrepreneurs should be owners of an already developed e-agriculture/ICT4Ag application or platform. Two categories are available: Early stage platform and Advanced platform. Winning teams will receive a cash prize of up to €15,000, as well as promotional support, additional capacity building and networking opportunities. For More.

Rockefeller – Africa Centre,  Artists In Residence (Bellagio) program is seeking applications from high calibre African artists, in different stages of their career development (from emerging to late career), who are provocative, innovative, and are stretching the boundaries of their artistic practice. The residencies are available to composers, fiction and non-fiction writers, playwrights, poets, video/filmmakers, curators, visual and performance artists. Application deadline is September 30.

$1 = KES 101, £1=133, €=113

What other opportunities are out there? Share in the comments section

ALU: Africa’s University of the Future

The African Leadership University (ALU) is a pan-African university, which aims to prepare students for jobs that don’t exist today. Their programs aim to equip students with necessary skills including entrepreneurship, leadership, critical thinking, and project management – right from their first term. They have an intense online engagement process to monitor student performance that starts right from the time students apply and then right through admissions, assignments, courses, exams and assignments.

Their current degrees on offer at their Mauritius campus are Computing (Bsc), Business Management (BA), Social Sciences (BA) and Psychology (Bsc). It opened in September 2015 and has over 200 students from over 30 African countries.  Every year, students can get up to 4  months of internship at one of the ALU partner organizations which include Cellulant, Coca-Cola, McKinsey, Tiger, IBM, PWC, Thomson Reuters,  Pernod Ricard and Swiss Re. The partners also help subsidize the cost of education at ALU where a year of tuition and accommodation is about $7,000 – a modest amount compared to the cost of university education in many countries.

They also have a study abroad program that takes 4-12 months and ALU will have an MBA program at a new campus that will soon open in Rwanda, and for which they are already accepting applications. ALU is part of the Africa Leadership Group, and has founders including Fred Swaniker, Graca Machel and Donald Kaberuka. Eventually, they plan to have  25 campuses across Africa that can host 10,000 students a year.

ALU teams are currently on road shows to promote the university in Accra, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Lagos. They have workshops, schools visits, and other events this month as they promote the university, and they are accepting applications up to a deadline on June 5.

High School Scholarships from Kenyan Banks

The leading indigenous Kenyan banks now have scholarship programs that target bright children who are going into high school.

  • The pioneer of this is Equity Bank, whose foundation program dubbed Wings To Fly will this year hand out 2,000 scholarships to school children entering high school. They target students with financial needs who scored more than  350 marks in primary school exams whose results were announced last week. The program has helped over 10,000 since its inception and students or their families can collect applications from their local bank branches. The support includes fees, pocket money, a pair of shoes each year and participation in a mentorship and leadership program. Also, in 2015, 65 students received overseas university scholarships from the Foundations’ Equity Leaders Program.
  • KCB, through its Foundation, has a scholarship program that will support 240 children from all counties through their secondary schools, and this will include tuition, uniform, books, and mentorship. KCB also has partnerships that support scholarships through the Palmhouse Foundation, Starehe Girls, & Starehe Boys schools, and others that donate books, renovate classes and provide water tanks to schools. The total figure is about Ksh 100 million ($1 million) for 2016. Their research shows that Kenya has one of the most expensive secondary education systems in Africa. Presently, fees for national and county schools range from KSh45,000 to KSh136,000 (~$1,360)  per year, which is not affordable for many parents.
  • Cooperative Bank is going to award scholarships to 655 children through  its Foundation Scholarship Scheme for 2016. 420 will be selected by the bank and 235 will be awarded by county governments in each of the 47 counties in Kenya (at 5 per county).  The bank will also pay for the university education of 130 of the top students in the secondary school examinations.
  • Family Bank has an education program that includes secondary school scholarships and a talent program that gives employment opportunities to top kids after high school.

Idea Exchange: ALN, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, MAVC, Research, Rhodes, World Bank, YALI opportunities

Acumen: regional fellows program is a one-year, fully funded leadership development program designed to equip East Africa, India and Pakistan’s next generation of social leaders with the tools needed to unlock their full potential and drive positive change. Applications for East Africa close on July 27.

Africa Business Fellowship: will match young American business professionals with paid 6-month placements in African companies.

African Fact-Checking Awards: organized by Africa Check and the AFP Foundation, these are the only awards that honour journalism by media based in Africa that expose misleading claims made by public figures and institutions. Eligible entries must be original pieces of fact-checking journalism first published or broadcast between 1 September 2014 and 31 August 2015, by a media house based in Africa – in print or online, broadcast on the radio or television or published in a blog. Winner will receive a cash prize of €2000 and the two runners-up a prize of €1000 each.

Africa Leadership Network: apply to join hundreds of Africa’s most influential leaders at the sixth annual ALN gathering which will be held in Morocco from November 3 to 7, 2015. . Early bird discounts are offered, and for the first time, select non-ALN members will be eligible to attend #ALN2015.

Ampion: Venture Bus Africa Incubation Road Trip is a 7-day road trip across the continent that aims to take up to 200 participants on five buses in Morocco, Tunisia and Western, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa regions. Apply now for the East Africa group which has e-health, and governance themes for a trip planned 22 – 28 Oct.  2015.

Aspiring Entrepreneurs Program: targets 30 promising and aspiring entrepreneurs between ages 18 – 35 to join the program, in which they will get the opportunity to start their own business with grants approaching one million Naira (~$5,025). Apply by 30 July.

BAKE/ Mzalendo:  Political blogging workshop aims to help bloggers improve their writing or blogging skills on any of the following topics: parliamentary business, devolution and county Assemblies work, data journalism and constitutional Implementation? There are 30 slots, and the deadline is 19 July.

Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa: (BMIA) is a prestigious pan-African executive training program that’s been developed for mid-career journalists, financial professionals with an interest in financial journalism; government professionals, development practitioners and civil society professionals.  Apply for the this fully funded, free program worth $15,000 for sessions at leading universities in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

British Institute in Eastern Africa: (BIEA) has research funding for projects in the areas of spending time, everyday states, connections & disconnections, bio-cultural frontiers, and land, heritage & memory. Deadline is 1 August.

Commonwealth Writers: call for writers is seeking commission correspondents in the different regions of the Commonwealth and also writers for longer pieces. Dealing is July 27.

Eisenhower Fellowships: seeks a diverse mix of applicants from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe in a wide range of professional sectors to tackle big challenges in the future. Deadline is October 16.

Traveling to Kenya? From 1 September all visitor visas will be applied for online at an eCitizen website with payments made via debit or credit card and a 2 (working) day processing time.

A Kiswahili Kshs 1 million (~$10,000) literary award is the Tuzo ya Fasihi ya Ubunifu Kiswahili Literary Award which will see will see winners eligible to win up to Kshs 1,000,000 and be published in Kenya by Spotlight Publishers and translated in France. Submit manuscripts of novels written in Kiswahili by 15 September.

Making All Voices Count: (MAVC) has grant funding for practitioner research & learning (up to £25,000 for projects, of a minimum of 3 – 12 months) and for research (up to £75,000 for research projects of 3 – 18 months)

– Also, there’s a MAVC #Tech4CitizenVoice competition in South Africa to find local innovators with early-stage tech governance projects that the programme could potentially incubate and fund. Deadline is 10 August.

The Mobile Application Challenge: (MAC) has an African Tech Challenge that comes with  a $5,000 first prize  (plus free access to Gearbox incubator for 6-months), $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third place during which the final 10 contestants will have the opportunity to build the mobile app and demo the results in front of a judging panel. Apply by the 18 July deadline. The aim is to help Kenyan youth get technical skills in manufacturing that will help them in future to engage in entrepreneurship and in getting quality jobs. This year, there are two competitions (Technical Challenge and Mobile App Challenge) with cash prizes amounting to $10,000 for the Technical Challenge’s top six teams and $8,000 as a cash prize for the top three individual winners of the Mobile App Challenge.

Rhodes: scholarships fully fund and support post-graduate study at Oxford University for scholars from 32 counties, with 2 places for Kenyans in 2016. Application deadline is 31 August.

World Bank:  Young Professionals Program has been the preeminent program preparing global development leaders. The application for the 2016 group runs through July 31, 2015. The World Bank also has an ongoing  recruitment drive for African nationals that aims to increase the number of Sub Saharan Africans in its workforce. The application deadline is August 31.

YALI East Africa: apply to join the YALI regional leadership center East Africa, which is based in Nairobi and has three program tracks; business & entrepreneurship, civic leadership, and public management with a note that applicants from Eritrea can only join either the business & entrepreneurship or the civil leadership ones and applicants from Sudan can only join the civic leadership one.

EDIT

AfricaKnows monthly photo competition is back, with the theme is ”Highways and Road Infrastructure”. Submit your best images that showcase highway construction projects and other road infrastructure for a chance to win cash prizes.

Apply for the Ambassadors to the Internet Governance Forum (João Pessoa, Brazil) as either a First-Time or as a  Returning Ambassador. IGF Ambassadorships are for young Internet Society members who have a strong interest in the issues and themes of the IGF. Applications close on August 2.

Glaxo Smith Kline and Save the Children have launched their 3rd annual $1 million Healthcare Innovation Award which awards healthcare innovations that have helped reduce child deaths in developing countries. Apply online by September 7.

Graduate trainee at Mabati Rolling Mills can build personal skills and experience in specific functions in preparation for growth into a senior role at the Safal Group in the next five years. Apply by 17 July.

Safaricom have launched the 3rd edition for the Safaricom Appwiz Challenge, a 3-month developer challenge targeting Kenyan innovators in mobile ICT. Since its introductions in 2013, and has since incubated close to 30 tech start-up solutions including Safaricom M-Ledger and Magazine Reel, both of which are now commercially successful and sustainable businesses. The Grand Winner will receive a cash grant of Ksh1.5 million (~$15,000), while the 1st Runner-up and 2nd Runner-up will receive Kshs.1million and Kshs. 500,000 respectively. The submission period kicks off on 20th July 2015 and closes on 16th August 2015.

Orange have launched the 2015 Orange African Social Venture Prize now in its 5th edition to encourage innovative start-up projects that help accelerate development in Africa. The prize awards three projects with grants of 10,000, 15,000 and 25,000 Euros, along with six months of mentorship from Orange, and the first prize will also receive free patent registration in the country of the project’s deployment. Deadline is September 18.

EDIT II

The 5th edition of the CIO100 have been launched and they enable corporate organizations (both MNC’s and SME’s) to nominate and share the various technology innovations that have enabled them to enhance their operations. Deadline is September 30.

International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) African Great Lakes Reporting Initiative will enable six (6) women journalists to travel to the Central African Republic and report on civil society, governance and humanitarian issues. Deadline is August 12

Graça Machel Scholarships for Women is open to nationals and residents in any of the SADC countries: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe – who have good first degrees and are studying or applying to study at a South African university.

The second round of the Safaricom Business Journalism Fellowship (SBJF) Program is now open to full-time editorial employees of newspapers, magazines and broadcast news organisations and freelance journalists who have at least four years’ experience. There are 15 places this year for the eight month, mid-career program that gives business journalists the opportunity to train alongside Kenya’s leading business lecturers and some of the top leading newsmakers in the region.

The International Reporting Project (IRP) has a group reporting trip to Ecuador focusing on health and development issues on October 18-29, 2015. Apply by August 7.

EDIT III

African Business Awards  aim to recognize individuals and companies driving the continent’s rapidly evolving economy forward. Categories being competed for are (i) African business of the year (ii)  business leader of the year (iii) outstanding woman in business (iv) award for good corporate governance (v)  award for best corporate social responsibility (vi) award for innovation (vii) insurance company & initiative of the year (viii)  African business icon and (ix) lifetime achievement award. Deadline is August 10

African Media Initiative media competition is open to professional journalists and media organizations can apply. The Zimeo excellence in media awards are in gender reporting, youth reporting, maritime economy reporting, business and finance reporting, technology reporting, agriculture and food security reporting, health reporting, education reporting, peace and security reporting, energy reporting, data journalism and climate change reporting. Deadline is Aug. 31.

EDIT IV

Centum Foundation is an initiative is to fund a crop of promising businesses, and within a year,  to turn businesses to a sustainable and successful enterprise.

Disruption By Design Awards 2015 – DXD 2015, is a platform that recognizes and awards local changemakers and innovators. Details here and the deadline is August 28.

Airtel and  Samsung, have partnered to search for the next big app developer from the continent. Deadline for applications is 5 September 2015.

Diplo and the NEPAD Agency invite applications for an 11-week long online training course Internet Governance in Africa which starts on 14 September 2015 and covers fundamental aspects of Internet governance and Internet policy. Applications should be received by 15 August.

Knight-Mozilla Fellowships 2016 present a unique opportunity for people who love to code and who want to influence the future of journalism on the web. Deadline is August 21.

M-PESA Foundation Academy has started the formal applications process for bright, talented but economically disadvantaged students in all 47 counties, from which 2 students per county will join the inaugural class starting in January 2016,.

Hadithi is the Airtel blog that allows people to share exciting ideas and stories on innovative people and out of the box concepts and are seeking people to submit their content for Airtel to publish by sharing their contact details, rate card and at least 3 writing samples.

Jumia Kenya wants to pay you to post status updates on Facebook, Twitter and other sites in Kenya. Launched in January 2015 the Jumia affiliate program has become a cash cow for the social media lovers. Commissions vary depending on the different categories of products one chooses to promote but to a maximum of 11%.

Mining 4 1 is a call for innovations on technology in the Kenya mining sector. The top five innovators will be given a chance to present their ideas before a panel of leading entrepreneurs, industrialists and senior executives from the mining industry at the upcoming ‘Mining 4 I‘ event to be held at the Strathmore Business School. Applications deadline is 20 August.

What other opportunities are there for readers to apply for?

Idea Exchange: Acumen, Elumelu, Mastercard, MP’s Qatar

Acumen Global Fellows:  Applications for the Acumen Global Fellows 2015 are now open. Gain world-class leadership training, serve in the field with a social enterprise, join a cohort of emerging leaders who will change the world. Deadline is December 14.

Challenge Cup 2015:  Startup Incubators 1776 and iHub have partnered to bring Challenge Cup 2015 to Nairobi.  Challenge Cup 2015, is a global competition that spans 16 cities in 11 countries to identify the most promising startups with the best ideas to solve the world’s biggest challenges. Challenge Cup participants compete for $650,000 in prizes in four categories—education, energy, health, and cities—as well as the chance to connect with mentors, corporate partners, policymakers, and potential investors. The Nairobi event, will be held on 22nd January 2015,  and the application deadline for that is 19 December.

Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship: The Tony Elumelu Foundation launched a $100m program to empower next generation of African entrepreneurs through a multi-year program of training, funding, and mentoring. A committee of African business leaders will select the most promising 1,000 start-ups annually from across the continent. The online application portal for the 2015 round of entries will open on 1 January 2015 and close on 1 March 2015, and is open to applicants from all 54 African countries and will be accepted in English, French and Portuguese.

(edit) Football Dreams Africa: Qatar Airways  and Aspire_Academy give 20 African fans a chance to train with the “FC Barcelona under 15’s Youth Team” in Barcelona, Spain. It’s open to all countries in Africa, and the sign up deadline is January 31, 2015.

GSK Africa: GSK asks that you submit your ideas that help improve the understanding of non communicable diseases (NCD’s) in Africa to be considered for funding from GlaxoSmithKline. GSK have availed 4 million pounds to fund research proposals with an opportunity for successful applicants to collaborate with GSK scientists. Deadline is 13 January.

ITU Telecom Initiative: The Young Innovators Competition is an annual ITU Telecom initiative, aimed at talented young social entrepreneurs using technology creatively to meet a range of real-life developmental challenges. Selected winners with the most exciting ideas or start-ups are invited to ITU Telecom World in Doha for a four-day accelerator programme of pitching sessions, workshops and mentoring – as well as the opportunity to win up to USD 10,000 in seed funding.

LIFT Innovation Fund: TradeMark East Africa launched a $16 million challenge fund for innovations that reduce the cost of transport & logistics in East Africa. The #LIFT challenge fund supported by DFID (UK) will provide grants of US$200,000 – $750,000 to winning proposals.

MasterCard Foundation Scholars: The Mastercard Foundation has committed $86.6 million to educate up to 2,300 university students from Uganda, South Africa and Ghana by 2015. The support will be channeled through 4 universities that are now part of the Foundation’s 21 global partners;  Makerere University ($21M), The University of Pretoria ($21.3M), The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology ($20.8M), and the University of Cape Town (23.5M). The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program is a 10-year, $500 million Program that hopes to inspire 15,000 young people from economically disadvantaged communities to lead change through education. Scholars receive holistic financial, social, academic and leadership development support to create pathways for them to transition to jobs, entrepreneurial activities or further education – and by the end of the Program, about 75 percent of the Scholars will be girls and young women.

People Shujazz Awards: Which Parliamentarians raised motions, issued statements, made contributions or moved bills of great public interest in 2013-2014? Mzalendo keeps an eye on Parliament and has selected nominees in 10 categories. Help Mzalendo celebrate the parliamentarians by voting for your choice. Voting ends on 7 December, at 11.59pm, and finalists will be announced on 11th December.

(edit) Rising Star: The  CfC Stanbic  Rising Star Awards Programme has been developed to publicly recognise inspirational and passionate and talented young people (between the ages of 28 and 40) who contribute in an encouraging manner to the future of our nation. There are ten industry categories in this year’s awards –  include banking & finance, construction, energy & chemicals, entrepreneur, ICT, logistics & supply chain, media & marketing, professional services, manufacturing, retail & FMCG, Service: public & private, and tourism & hospitality. Deadline for nominations is 30 January, 2015.

Safaricom Spark Fund: The Safaricom Spark Venture is a $1 million fund available to start-ups using mobile technology as an enabler in mobile commerce/payments, youth, media content & infotainment, SME & cloud solutions, data & messaging etc. The Fund will be managed by TBL Invest over a 2 year period and Spark will invest $75,000-$250,000 of debt/equity in ICT startups selected by TBL.

What other cool opportunities are there that people can apply for?