Next month, I will publish the 2015 ranking of the 30 Under 30: Africa’s Best Young Entrepreneurs. Now in its third year, the list is the most definitive guide to the continent’s entrepreneurial best – the youthful game changers and visionaries who are building the companies that will lead in the future.
I am looking to identify 30 of Africa’s brightest, most ambitious and unsung young entrepreneurial stars. To help compile the list, I am asking you, the reader to nominate entrepreneurs (aged 30 and under) who are making the most dramatic impact in Africa today in manufacturing, technology, real estate, media & entertainment, financial services, agriculture, fashion and the service industry. I am on the lookout for builders and leaders, innovators and risk takers; today’s upstarts, tomorrow’s legends.
Nominees must be citizens of one of the 54 African countries and their business must be based in an African country. And no lone rangers here; nominees must be entrepreneurs who have built businesses that employ at least 4 people. Ideally, the companies they have built should be generating revenues above $1 million, and be profitable. But if they are yet to break even, they must have good prospects for the near future. For instance, if an entrepreneur has raised a significant round of funding from investors, but is yet to turn a profit, he or she is of interest. And they must be ethical and socially responsible people, because entrepreneurs must help not just themselves but those around them.
To have an idea of the sort of entrepreneurs I am searching for, have a look at previous lists here and here. Entrepreneurs who have been listed in the past include Patrick Ngowi, the Tanzanian founder of Helvetic Solar, Eric Kinoti, the Kenyanfounder of Shades System East Africa, a tent manufacturer and UchePedro, the Nigerianmedia entrepreneur and founder of BellaNaija, a new media company that develops online media content for audiences.
We need to identify more entrepreneurs like these.
Tweet me your nominations @MfonobongNsehe or email me at mnsehe (at) forbes (dot) com on or before the 31st of January, 2015.
As published on Forbes