Final Event: AGEA Business Idea Competition 2022

We finally have the Top 6 (six) teams presenting their start-up ideas at the grand finale organized as part of the 30th Anniversary celebration of the SEPT Competence Center in Leipzig. This comes off on 20 September 2022 within the hours of 14:00 – 16:00 Central European Summer Time or (12:00–14:00 GMT).

Students (Masters and Ph.D.), University Staff (Lecturers, Researchers, and Professors), University Alumni, and Entrepreneurs from African universities will participate in this event. The Top 6 six teams have conducted scientific research and working towards developing their research to provide sustainable and economically viable business solutions to societal problems.

Out of 94 applications from over 20 countries across Africa, 34 of the ideas met the selection and evaluation criteria to move to the next stage of the competition.  More information about the ideas were collected using the innovation platform (Innolytics). After that, our distinguished team of judges evaluated and scored the ideas and came out with the Top six (6) ideas.

Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda were the top 5 countries with the highest number of applications. The applications were from several research fields such as Education, Agriculture, Food, Healthcare, Waste Management, and Small Business Development.

The Top 6 (six) start-up ideas to present their ideas are:

1.Hybrid Solar Dryer

The team is led by Dr. Muinat Moninuola Bello from the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria.

2.Kuzimba Services

Kuzimba Services, led by Ephrance Eunice Namugenyi from the Makerere University, Uganda.

3.Processing of Different Plant Extracts as Insecticides Against Mosquitoes and Fall Armyworms

Assifuah Hasford Kojo Ainoo from University for Development Studies, Nyankpala Campus, Ghana.

4.Bactericide against Bacterial Wilt disease in Potato

George Oluoch from the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology, and Innovation, Kenya.

5.The Prototype of RapiDryM500

Bassaw Barry the team leader for RapiDryM500 from the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana.

6.Soilless Gardening

Margaret Gumisiriza Ssentambi from Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology, Tanzania.

The African German Entrepreneurship Academy Business Idea Competition 2022 opened the application portal on 1 June 2022 with an application deadline on 15 July 2022. After that, the ideas were evaluated by our evaluation team. On 10 August 2022, the Top 6 (six) ideas were announced.

Now, the final event on 20 September 2022 will host both live in-person and virtual participants from across the globe. The Top 6 (six) start-up ideas will present their ideas in a form of pitch (promotional) videos and answer ensuing questions about their business ideas from the jury.

The jury will then evaluate and score the ideas to select the Top 3 (three) idea winners. In the end, the winners receive a cash prize of €1,000 for first place, €500 for second place, and €300 for third place. There will also be an audience award where the participating audience will vote to choose the winner. The audience award winner takes home a cash prize of €500. All ideas that made it to the Top 6 (six) will benefit from the post-competition resources (AGEA Start-up Class) that will be made available to support them.