Inspiration & Disappointment of Omidyar Africa Entrepreneurship Awards

Categories: Corporate Responsibility, Ethical Companies, Fair Sourcing, Sustainability, Workforce Diversity, enterprise, entrepreneurship, Legatum, Omidyar

Dec 6, 2010 01:40 pm 3 Comments

Hello from Kenya!

So tonight I was one of the humble Kenya entrpeneurs invited to attend the 2010 Omidyar Africa Entrepreneur Award's Ceremony. It was a glorious event if not a bit pretentious but was an honor to be invited and spend the evening with an amazing group of African entrpreneurs. But there were beautifu people as well as an amazing network of those working to build financially sustainble and viable enterprise in Africa.   To catch you up before I begin my B*TCH session were the list of finalists:  http://www.omidyar.com/about_us/news/2010/11/09/ten-finalists-named-2010-africa-awards-entrepreneurship.  

 While I understand the award focused on enterprise who have already accomplished remarkable success as start ups, I was left with one question:  where were the women?  That's right - there was not one female entrepeneur listed.  They reminded us that more than 2,700 submissions were made but not one woman owned enterprise was chosen as a finalist!  Now.. I am not taking the position that being a woman on its own should be a defining factor but I do believe that African women should be promoted whenver possible. Yes, being a woman owned enteprise here as in many developing countries is in itself a TRIUMPH which needs to be acknowledged and promoted!  I simply refuse to believe there were not enough entrants to justify at least one woman finalist!  My second disappointment was not one business represented an eco-friendly solution with an impact on a single MDG. 

So... are you an African enterpise ?  If yes, what's your story? 

And yes, the MC was Komla Dumor from BBC's Africa Business Report. I personally love him and it was an honor to meet him in person. DAMMIT.. I forgot to get a picture taken!

Rachel

hamishbanks
December 8, 2010 - 2:35am

Rachel, thanks for your comments and I’m glad you had a good time: as the organiser of the Africa Awards, from Legatum, I can tell you that it has been an inspiration for us from the get-go and I think the exuberance of the grand prize winner on the night said it all. You're not alone in noting the lack of women finalists - Eva Muraya was quite vocal on the issue with me. A couple of points: we believe this competition should be played on a level field and don't think it's right to positively discriminate in favour of one group or another; we did have plenty of entries from women entrepreneurs, but they didn’t make it through to the end for a variety of reasons: many, for example, didn’t meet the threshold of $2MM in revenues – setting up a business is perhaps even tougher for a woman in many African countries and while they may be making great strides, it might be a couple more years before their businesses have grown to that level. That said, we know that there are many things we can do better next year to make sure we get the very best women-owned businesses into the mix: we need to get the word out in the businesswomen communities much earlier, through advertising, briefings and word-of-mouth; we need tireless champions who will encourage and prompt the best women entrepreneurs to compete. And we’re open to suggestions and ideas – let me know how we can do better. Thanks, Hamish.

hamishbanks
December 8, 2010 - 2:46am

One more thing on the eco-businesses. Again, we did have a number of entries from eco-businesses and most of the comments I made re the women-owned business apply here: no special favors for any group; generally, their levels of profitability were marginal (this is a business competition with a strong emphasis on sustainable growth and profit); and while all of the finalists had a strong story in their level of community engagement, we aren't looking at MDG support specifically. Thanks, Hamish

RachelKenya
December 8, 2010 - 10:08am

Hamish... I appreciate the response to my feedback. Every organization matures with time and am sure you will continue to make remarkable strides in refining the awards process since 2007. And while community engagement is important so are accomplishing more strategic goals. I look forward to seeing the competition advertised next year and we may even choose to apply.

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