{"id":4831,"date":"2019-12-10T10:52:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T10:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.ja-africa.org\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:03:21","slug":"youth-entrepreneurship-wins-at-ja-africa-company-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.ja-africa.org\/backend\/youth-entrepreneurship-wins-at-ja-africa-company-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Entrepreneurship Wins at JA Africa Company Of The Year Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Accra, Ghana – December 10th,\n2019<\/strong>: Forty four high school students from 11 countries in Africa\nconverged in Accra last week for Junior Achievement (JA) Africa\u2019s 2019 Company of the Year\ncompetition. The competition brought together young entrepreneurs\nfrom Botswana, Eswatini (Swaziland), Gabon, Ghana, Kenya,\nMauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Also in\nattendance were government officials, senior business executives, Board Members\nand other guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a rigorous\ncompetition, Relo-Pave Investments from Botswana was selected as the overall\nwinner of the competition, taking home the Company of the Year title as well as\na cash prize. The company produces waterless paving bricks. In second place was\nEdu-Buddies from Eswatini who developed a platform that gives parents access to their\nchildren’s academic results, leveraging on USSD technology. Third place went to T.C. Achievers from Nigeria, a company\nwhich produces gas leakage detectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past\nyear, the students from each country created and ran businesses under the JA\nCompany Program, JA\u2019s flagship entrepreneurship education program for secondary\nschool students. The students had previously competed at the national level to\nqualify for the regional final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Event chair,\nMr. Bethel Yeboah, Public Affairs and Communications Manager at The Coca Cola\nBottling Company of Ghana in his remarks said, \u201cThe theme for this year\u2019s\nCompany of the Year competition is \u2018Activating Disruptors\u2019. We are looking for\npeople who can take established industries and introduce disruptive ideas and\nproducts that can fundamentally change the way business is done. In business,\nsome of the greatest success stories are not necessarily original ideas, but\nrather imitated ideas that were improved upon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keynote\nSpeaker, Mr. Emmanuel E.K. Awumee, CEO of SESIL Consult, echoed these\nsentiments, adding that \u201cWe need to encourage [youth] and those who have\ndecided to go into careers that direct them towards technical vocations. We\nneed to de-stigmatize the environment. \u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the competition, FedEx Corp.<\/strong> presented the Access Award, which recognizes the company that best exhibits the principles of global connectivity. This year Relo-Pave Investments from Botswana won the award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was also supported by Citi Foundation<\/strong> which, through its “More than Philanthropy” approach, leverages the expertise of its people to fulfill its mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. Citi presented the Client Focus Award, recognizing exceptional leadership in client satisfaction and a high level of commitment to quality customer service to the student company, T.C. Achievers of Nigeria, which developed a device to detect gas leakages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Social Impact Award, which recognizes values-driven corporate social responsibility and impact went to Zambia\u2019s Active Innovators and was presented by Delta Air Lines<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also sponsoring the event was <\/strong>the Swiss-based Tomorrow Foundation<\/strong>, which supported the Future Tech\/Innovation Award, which went to Edu-Buddies from Eswatini. The winners created an app which monitors school attendance of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of\nthe event, an award was given to a startup run by a young out of school\nentrepreneur. This award was funded by Facebook<\/strong>\nand given to Wot Art Company\u2019s CEO John Samuel Ewotu from Uganda, who also won\na sponsored trip to attend the competition in Accra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


An award for Entrepreneurial Spirit was funded by Kosmos Energy<\/strong>, a premier international oil and gas exploration and production company. This award was also taken home by T.C. Achievers from Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, a student CEO of a company is selected for the CEO Rising award, which recognizes exemplary business leadership. LAWtrust<\/strong>, Africa\u2019s leading trust center, security integrator and security solutions supported this award. LAWtrust CEO and JA Africa Board Member, Christi Maherry, traveled from Johannesburg to present the award on stage to Eswatini\u2019s Brian Dlamini, CEO of Edu-Buddies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year the judges also gave a special award for Most Improved Team Spirit, to recognize  a team that showed significant improvement in team cohesion over the course of the competition. Future Entrepreneurs from South Africa took home this award and received a prize from the IE Foundation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other event supporters were <\/strong>Bechtel, African Export-Import Bank, The\nCoca-Cola Bottling Company of Ghana Ltd.,<\/strong> Newmont Goldcorp Ghana, <\/strong>Bata and L\u2019Or\u00e9al. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a full list of the 2019 COY Competition award winners:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n