BLAZE by Safaricom hosted the 7th Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Summit of the year at the Kitale National Polytechnic in Trans Nzoia County on 21st September.
The Kitale Summit was attended by 2,800 young people from the region. The young people engaged BLAZE partners and mentors on achieving success in creative arts, fashion, film & photography, sales & production, music, agriculture and sports.
At the summit, attendees interacted with mentors such as Caleb Karuga (Agripreneur), Catherine Kamau (Actress), Brian Diang’a (Professional gamer), Wangari Nyanjui (entrepreneur) and Naiboi (Musician). BLAZE partners including Google, IBM and Wezesha were present to provide a mix of content, training and employment opportunities.
To inspire youth who would like to take up gaming as a career, BLAZE introduced an E-Sports Tournament that held its grassroots knockouts in conjunction with the summit. Moses Violu, Joel Mungare and James Lilechi emerged the top 3 in the FIFA 19 tournament grassroots knockouts, where the winner took home Ksh. 10,000 and a slot to compete in the regional finals.
The Rift regional engagement will culminate in a creation camp and the regional finals of the BLAZE E-Sports Tournament in Eldoret. At the creation camp, the top 3 entrepreneurs in 8 categories stand to win Ksh 50,000, Ksh. 30,000 and Ksh. 20,000 respectively. The top 3 in the Regional E-Sports Tournament Finals will walk away with Ksh. 50,000, Ksh. 30,000 and Ksh. 20,000 respectively.
Earlier this year, BLAZE committed to increasing the number of regional engagements and the Kitale Summit, which is the seventh of the year, has seen BLAZE hold more than double the summits it held last year. In addition to the Kitale edition, BLAZE has also held BYOB Summits in Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Mariakani, Kilifi and Kericho.