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?