Techpreneur Africa hosts MIT Legatum Cross-Continent Tour in Lagos

The Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Legatum Centre), with the Mastercard Foundation, has announced a series of events in three cities across Africa to discover and support local entrepreneurs who are bringing their knowledge to bear on their continent’s greatest challenges.

Mobolaji Finnih, CEO, Techpreneur Africa, host of the Lagos edition of the tour which started on Monday and ends today, said in a statement that; “Open Mic Africa is a cross-continent tour that seeks to find and showcase Africa’s top innovators while developing a dialogue among local entrepreneurs, investors, and MIT mentors. The tour is a prelude to the 2017 Zambezi Prize for Innovation in Financial Inclusion, organized by the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT.”

“Africa represents the fastest growing region for entrepreneurship in the world,” said Georgina Campbell Flatter, the MIT Legatum Centre Executive Director and lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “Open Mic Africa is designed to unearth, inspire and celebrate the next generation of global technology ventures that are powering this movement. The MIT Legatum Centre community is looking forward to working with all the entrepreneurs we encounter during our summer tour.”

Each city’s agenda will include: inspirational talks from African entrepreneurs who have successfully taken their ventures to scale; workshops on understanding customers and venture pitch training; mentoring sessions; and an “open pitch” competition where the top three winners share US$2,500. There will also be “Ask Me Anything” Booths for those interested in learning about opportunities to apply to MIT programs. Attendees may pre-register and sign up for these events online via www.legatum.mit.edu/resources/ open-mic-africa/

Open Mic Africa is the first phase of the 2017 Zambezi Prize for Innovation in Financial Inclusion which will officially open in August 2017. The Zambezi Prize was established in 2015 by the MIT Legatum Centre and the Mastercard Foundation to discover and support Africa’s most promising and innovative early-stage start-ups that help advance financial inclusion. The Prize awards US$100,000 to Africa’s most promising early-stage start-up that is solving a major financial inclusion challenge in the most innovative way. Prize finalists are eligible to receive additional cash prizes and for a chance to attend MIT’s acclaimed Entrepreneurship Development Program, a one-week immersive executive program at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

The 2017 Prize will also honour one African leader with a Legatum Leadership Award for his or her extraordinary contribution to African entrepreneurship. In total, the Zambezi Prize will award US$200,000 in cash prizes to entrepreneurs from the continent.

CALEB OJEWALE