After delivering its commitment on entrepreneurship in Africa by launching Zambezi Price, The Legatum Centre has confirmed its sponsorship for DEMO Africa, to further its mission of catalyzing entrepreneurship for broad based property in low-income countries.
The move stamps the center’s commitment to promote and shape the discourse on bottom-up development to cement both the party’s commitment to unlocking the potential of individuals and economies.
Legatum is best known for its renowned fellowship – The Legatum Fellowship at MIT for incoming and current MIT students committed to developing for-profit enterprises in developing countries. While the Center has had Fellows from around the globe, the Center has contributed to the entrepreneurship eco-system in Africa by supporting enterprising MIT students who are working on innovative ventures across the continent.
Some of these ventures include a mobile survey technology company that provides data solutions, a waste management enterprise that is solving sanitation challenges in urban slums, and a recycling firm improving the environment and livelihoods of a major African city.
The center’s product Zambezi Price raises awareness for entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, encouraging a wide spectrum of financial inclusion ventures to participate in the competition. Applicants from a total of seven countries submitted entries in its inaugural year 2014-2015 to compete for the Grand Prize of US $100,000 for the winner, with an additional US $100,000 divided among first and second runners up and other finalists.
The DEMO Africa event is scheduled to take place on 24th and 25th of September at the Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos, Nigeria. This year, DEMO Africa introduces knowledge streams to delve into critical topics including Business Modelling, Scaling Businesses, Creating an Unfair Advantage, and Raising Capital.
In the event hosted by DEMO Africa, the Nigerian Ministry of Communication Technology and the National Information Technology6 Agency-Nigeria in collaboration with LIONS@FRICA and VC4Africa Africa-generated technology will be expected to dominate the conversations.
