Kenyan Agribusiness innovator Taita Ngetich is the man who will be flying Kenya’s flag high at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit to be held next month in Nairobi.
Ngetich was among 30 Finalists who will now undergo web based training prior to their flying to Nairobi where they will also get 2 days of intensive entrepreneurial skills training, mentorship, and networking access to global leaders in their fields all culminating to live pitching final to decide who will become the Tech-I 2015 winners.
Reacting to the news, an excited Ngetich took to Twitter and said, “IT’’S OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!……….WE WON!! My heart is palpating like the Western Drums of Senegal.”
This year the Tech-I competition received a record 792 applications from 74 countries in the sectors of agriculture, energy, healthcare, and information communication technology. Following initial review at AAAS, applications went to the formal review stage conducted by the expert panels. Over 110 regional, scientific, technical, innovation, and entrepreneurship experts from around the world participated in the review process assessing: the feasibility of the idea/start-up; and the potential societal impact and target market of the idea/startup including a consideration as to what problems the idea solves, what the benefits of such an idea are, and how this product compares to others. Each application was reviewed by a minimum of 3 experts within a specific panel focused on their region and application sector.
Following full review, 76 semi-finalists from 37 countries were announced on May 8. From May 11 through June 11, semi-finalists embarked on a huge promotion campaign to advertise themselves, their product, and not forgetting to get people to vote on the Tech-I website for their idea. In total, Tech-I semi-finalists received an amazing 407,697 votes hugely surpassing the 1,000,000th Tech-I competition vote since 2011. During the month of voting, semi-finalists appeared on national and international television, on radio, Voice of America, in newspapers, and social media including the Prime Minister of Albania! Their efforts promoted entrepreneurship around the world in addition to highlighting how amazing ideas and hard work can not only benefit an individual but a community, a country, a region, and the world as a whole.
Other African countries that will be represented are Nigeria, Zambia, Morocco , Malawi, Uganda, South Africa Algeria and Botswana. There will also be participants from Asia , Europe and Mexico.