Collins Kathuli, a software development student at KCA University and founder of Kyanda Africa, won first place in Kenya’s 2023-2024 Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) competition. He will now represent Kenya at the GSEA Global quarter-finals taking place in Oman next month.
This year, over 1,200 student entrepreneurs applied to take part in GSEA from over 40 countries across the world. The Global Finals are scheduled to take place in Singapore in April 2024 with a total prize package of $100,000.
As the winner of the Kenya competition, Collins, will receive prize money of KES 100,000 for his business in addition to mentorship and business coaching from leading entrepreneurs.
Collins Kathuli, 2023-2024 EO Kenya GSEA winner said: “This has been my dream after four years and four attempts, I have finally managed to win. You need to keep trying and never give up – when you do something persistently, at the end of the day it pays off. I’m really looking forward to the Global quarter-finals in Oman!”
Amar Shah, EO Kenya’s Chapter President, said: “We launched GSEA in Kenya in 2017 and it’s amazing to see how much it has grown year by year in terms of the number of applicants. I believe we have an amazing platform and I can only see it growing to another level, where GSEA is recognised as a premier event for student entrepreneurs. The year’s finals have been the best, we had high calibre participants with style, presence and confidence. We look forward to seeing a Kenyan winning the Global Finals!”
Dominic Kiarie, CEO of Jubilee Asset Management, this year’s main sponsor, said: “Student entrepreneurship is very critical and we’re proud to be one of the key sponsors of the event. Entrepreneurs are the people who really ensure there is progress in society, they have to solve numerous problems, they work on creating products that solve a myriad of problems. With entrepreneurship, the students get the chance to learn the ropes, they are able to build their resilience and tenacity, I’m a strong believer that the right place to start as an entrepreneur is as a student. You can get all the support you need and by the time you graduate you take the path of being an entrepreneur. In a couple of years your business gains traction and now you can focus on scaling the business, so we’re very excited to be part of this event and we’ve seen high quality presentations and I was really impressed to be one of the judges.”
Additional winners
This year’s second place and third place winners in Kenya are:
· Charles Oyamo, a student at the University of Nairobi and founder of Rethread Africa, a promising start-up transforming waste into textile, placed second.
· Rediet Kassahun, a medical student at The University of Nairobi, and founder of Quick Cart Africa, an e-commerce delivery platform for fresh produce, won third place.