At the recent concluded 7th edition of Africa’s Business Heroes (ABH) Prize Competition grand finale, held at the Kigali Convention Centre in Kigali, Rwanda, alongside the ABH Summit, ten (10) outstanding entrepreneurs from Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania, pitched their innovative, high-impact ventures that are driving inclusive economic growth across Africa to a select panel of judges.
The 10 finalists represented diverse sectors, including agriculture, health, fintech, manufacturing, and transportation. They were described as “bold founders with solutions grounded in local realities and global ambition”.
Congratulating the top 10 finalists who rose from the vast pool of applicants, Ms. Juliana Muganza, Deputy CEO of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), stressed the transformative power of supporting innovators. “ABH reminds us that entrepreneurship is not just an ambition but a language spoken across the continent, reminding us that young people, women, innovators are no longer waiting for opportunities, they are creating them,” she said. “Supporting entrepreneurs is not charity. It is the fastest route to economic transformation, job creation, and inclusive growth across the continent.”
Each of the 10 finalists, Wyclife Onyango (Kenya), Siny Samba (Senegal), Mukasahaha Diane (Rwanda), Baraka Chijenga (Tanzania), Janet Kuteli (Kenya), Diana Orembe (Tanzania), Abraham Mbuthia (Kenya), Gohar Said (Egypt), Adriaan Kruger (South Africa), and Jean Lobe Lobe (Cameroon), took to the stage to pitch their ventures to the judges, who later announced Diana Orembe from Tanzania as the overall winner for her venture, NovFeed, a biotech startup that transforms agricultural waste into sustainable, affordable fish feed and biofertilizers.
Serving over 1,300 farmers through a network of Local Service Providers, NovFeed advances food security and rural economic empowerment.
Expressing her excitement, Orembe said, “The funding will be transformational for our business. It gives us seed capital to expand our production of fish feed and organic fertiliser, which already has very high demand from customers.” She added, “We have already taken major steps to scale production by improving logistics, building a large facility, and investing in machinery. We have impacted more than 3,000 farmers across Tanzania, and we aim to reach at least 100,000 farmers by 2030.”
NovFeed plans to scale production, expand into Kenya and Uganda, and grow its network to 600 service providers by 2027.
Abraham Mbuthia, Co-founder and CEO of Uzapoint Technologies Limited, and Adriaan Kruger, Co-founder and CEO of NuvoteQ, emerged as 1st and 2nd runners-up, respectively.
Uzapoint equips African SMEs with smart, localized digital tools and embedded financing that transform manual business processes into intelligent systems. The platform enhances accountability, streamlines operations, and unlocks growth capital for small enterprises while turning guesswork into data-driven, informed decisions powered by artificial intelligence.
NuvoteQ, on the other hand, is a health-tech venture transforming how clinical research is conducted through its cutting-edge Electronic Research Record (ERR) solutions. Its flagship platforms, Nukleus, Safetybase, and Kronus, streamline research data management, enhance patient safety, and optimize clinical trial workflows.
Diana Orembe won the overall cash prize of US$300,000 (approx. TZS741.44 million) while Abraham Mbuthia and Adriaan Kruger received US$250,000 (approx. KES32.23 million) and US$150,000 (approx. ZAR2.6 million), respectively.
Mbuthia said his company, which has served over 3,500 businesses across seven markets, aims to expand to 20 markets within the next five years. “We also want to grow the number of SMEs we transform to around 200,000. Many SMEs lack recognition and understanding of bookkeeping, so we plan to create training programmes and an SME campus where businesses can learn why bookkeeping matters and how to do it effectively.”
Kruger said, “Winning this is truly motivating.” Adding, “I’m a big supporter of the startup community, and I hope to help others discover ABH and apply, especially students and early-stage entrepreneurs.”
Diane Karusisi, CEO of Bank of Kigali and one of the judges, commended the finalists for their innovation and impact. She said the cohort featured 10 impressive entrepreneurs with diverse business ideas shaping Africa.
“As judges, we focused on solutions addressing critical problems facing Africa, but we also considered scalability. We wanted solutions that could make an impact beyond a local context. That is why we selected three winners,” she noted.
Zahra Baitie-Boateng, Africa Managing Director, ABH, emphasized the platform’s role in building strong networks and providing powerful storytelling that ensures the journeys of the heroes do not “remain in the shadows”.
“Africa’s future is being built right now by entrepreneurs, many of whom are in the room with us today,” she stated. “When you innovate, you show the world that Africans can create solutions to our own problems. You show the world that Africa’s time is now.”
Rwanda, hosting the grand finale for the third consecutive year, highlighted its commitment to fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem. The country will continue to host the ABH event for the next four years with its key partners, including the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the Rwanda Convention Bureau (RCB), and the Bank of Kigali.
The ABH Summit and Grand Finale event featured remarks from His Excellency Ambassador H.E. Gao Wenqi, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Rwanda, who acknowledged ABH’s significant impact. He called the initiative one of the “most significant and influential initiatives on this continent dedicated to fostering and celebrating entrepreneurship” since its inception in 2019.
Ambassador Gao noted that the increasing number of entrepreneurs applying to ABH is a “clear indication of Africa’s vitality and strength of its economy.” He specifically congratulated Rwandan entrepreneurs for their exceptional performance in past editions, noting that six Rwandans have emerged as top 10 finalists since 2019.
The ABH competition is part of the Jack Ma Foundation’s long-term commitment to supporting and fostering an inclusive and strong African entrepreneurial ecosystem. The program wants to recognize 100 African entrepreneurs over 10 years and allocate grant funding alongside training, mentoring, and learning programs, as well as access to a community of like-minded African business leaders.
The competition empowers entrepreneurs and captivates audiences with the diversity and ingenuity of the business plans submitted. Each business plan tells a unique story of resilience, creativity, and the drive to make a positive impact in Africa. From innovative tech solutions and beauty and fashion to sustainable agricultural initiatives, the business plans showcased in the competition offer fascinating insights into the entrepreneurial landscape across Africa.
