Ronald Yegon, Victor Nzau and James Mbogo are the winners of this year’s National Youth Council’s Fursa Vs Economic Recovery Challenge for their innovative ideas. The three winners were awarded MatePad Pro devices courtesy of Huawei.
Drawing from an initial group of over 1,000 youth innovators who were provided with training supported by the UK-Kenya Tech Hub, the 3 winners were announced by Principal Secretary for Youth Affairs, Charles Sunkuli.
Ronald Yegon won with his online marketplace to sell seedlings and trees, Victor Nzau with a business that recycles discarded leather and upcycles it into products to sell, and James Mbogo who addresses problems of low quality seeds by growing and certifying high quality seeds and seedlings for farmers along with training.
President Kenyatta congratulated the winners of the Fursa Vs Economic Recovery Challenge, expressing this as evidence of the great potential of the youth in this country. He further noted that embracing technology has proven to be the avenue that our youth can make a living and transform their lives.
Principal Secretary for Youth Affairs, Charles Sunkuli, CBS, spoke at the event about the potential for youth in Kenya saying, “Our youth have tremendous potential, great ideas, passion, and willingness to apply themselves to improving not only their own lives, but those of others and of the whole country. At the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, we are very committed to helping youth.”
The Fursathon, Fursa Vs. Economic Recovery Challenge was a six-week program calling on Youth Innovators from across all 47 Counties in Kenya to submit innovative ideas on post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery. The Challenge is spearheaded by National Youth Council with support by the UK government through UK-Kenya Tech Hub and Huawei, along with PostBank, Kenya Airways and Telkom Kenya.
Implemented by The Kijiji, 1,318 youth innovators from 47 Counties signed up to participate in the Fursa Vs. Economic Recovery Challenge. Each youth innovator went through a program of seven e-learning modules hosted on the Whitebox platform, as well as attending three online learning and networking events and a pitch competition.
Ultimately, three winners were selected after a public voting and panel judging of 50 shortlisted pitches. 41 Youth Ambassadors were trained, engaged with the youth innovators across the country and have set-up local innovation communities which will continue to thrive even after the end of the Fursathon.