ENTERPRISE54 – Airtel Ghana has announced the start of its maiden Business Plan Competition called Catapult your Business. The Competition presents a platform for young women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to pitch a business idea for seed funding and mentorship. Airtel will target women in businesses such as food processing, architecture and food nutrition.

Successful entrepreneurs and experts from venture capital and technology firms as well as Airtel Staff will serve as mentors, judges and workshop presenters. The competition which forms part of Airtel Ghana’s Corporate Social Responsibility is an extension of the Company’s month long celebration of International Women’s day.
Hannah Agbozo, Director for Legal and Corporate Affairs of Airtel Ghana said, “We believe that women are imbued with the spirit to succeed. We also believe women have dreams, aspirations and ambitions but are unable to realize them due to inadequate opportunities and that is why we have set up this competition to fuel that hunger to reach the top.”

She added that through Airtel Ghana’s Catapult your Business competition female students and local entrepreneurs will turn innovative ideas into actual businesses.

“We’re combining the best talents and resources from the universities with the brightest new ideas from the community, to grow entrepreneurship and to help make their ideas become enormous successes.”

Commenting, Donald Gwira, Head of Corporate Communications at Airtel Ghana, said: “Today’s launch introduces participants to the Competition’s rules and judging criteria, and marks the official start of the three-week executive summary submission period. Following a series of workshops, mentor sessions and two rounds of judging with feedback, the Competition will culminate on March 23rd2015 with a final presentation from five finalists and a public event awarding prizes to winners.”

The competition will be run on Airtel Ghana’s Social Media platforms. For more information please visit Airtel Ghana’s Facebook page. Last year, Airtel Nigeria also launched a similar initiative for technology entrepreneurs called Catapult-a-Startup which saw seven winners walk away with a million naira and technical support.

L-R: Tomi Davies, Chairman and Founder Mobile Monday; Zubair Abubakar, Co-Founder/CEO Chop Up; Roht Arora, Assistant Marketing Manager Airtel and Nitin Anand, Vice President, Data Products and Services