Ghanaian among finalists for Unilever/Cambridge Young Entrepreneurs Award
A young Ghanaian entrepreneur, Alloysius Attah, has been named as one of the seven finalists for the 2014 Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards.
The finalists were selected from 816 entries received from 88 countries on the Ashoka Changemakers platform. A panel will choose an overall winner who will be awarded with HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize at a prestigious dinner at the Guildhall in London on January 27, 2015.
The international awards programme is delivered by Unilever in partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). It rewards inspirational entrepreneurs aged 30 and under who have developed a product, service or application that helps make sustainable living commonplace.
The winner receives funding support of €50,000 and the remaining six finalists €10,000. All also participate in a twelve-month mentoring programme which aims to harness the diverse expertise, scale and influence of Unilever and CISL to support finalists to scale their business’ revenue and impact and hone their entrepreneurial skills.
Unilever CEO, Paul Polman said: “We created these awards for young people because they will be the guardians of sustainable development long into the future.
“I’m delighted that, in its second year, the Awards attracted 60 per cent more entries than in the inaugural year, resulting in a very high calibre of semi-finalists and the seven truly impressive finalists we announce today.
“It is a strong signal that young entrepreneurs are really welcoming access to the right support to help them lead the development of entrepreneurial responses to a changing world.”
On average there is only one agricultural extension officer on the ground for every 2000 farmers in Ghana, which has resulted in a lack of timely and locally relevant information reaching smallholder farmers, many of whom are women. As a result, farmers suffer from low yield and high post-harvest loss.
Farmerline, the business which 25-year-old Alloysius founded whilst at University, is helping smallholder farmers to increase yields by providing access to critical agricultural information via their mobile phones in their local language.
Since he launched Farmerline alongside his co-founder Emmanuel Owusu Addai in March 2013, over 4000 farmers have accessed information which has resulted in increased productivity, elevated income and improved standards of living.
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of food, home and personal care products, with sales in over 190 countries. The company works with 174,000 colleagues around the world and generated annual sales of €49.8 billion in 2013.
Source: GNA