On May 24^th the Guinea-Bissau Accelerator Lab launched an entrepreneurship competition in collaboration with Radio Jovem, an independent radio whose main audience is the youth of Guinea-Bissau. The aim of the competition was to engage young entrepreneurs and quasi-entrepreneurs, developing ideas in the public sector, which is the Frontier Challenge of the Accelerator Lab. Throughout the two weeks, 71 applications were received, with 25% of these applicants being women.

On the 14th June the 15 shortlisted candidates were invited for an afternoon of presentations where they had to pitch about 1) their business or idea, 2) it’s connection to public services, 3) the innovation brought by their business or idea and 4) how could the business or idea be scaled up in the future. The candidates were evaluated by our panel of partners which included Djassi Africa, InnovaLab, Fábrica de Start-Ups, Industrial Association of Guinea-Bissau (AIGB), National Association of Youth Entrepreneurship (ANEJ), BueloJobs and Djemberem. After each presentation, our panel presented questions to the candidates, which allowed them to explore more themes in their business or idea and how it met the overall criteria.

The three selected winners are:

1)     Nailde Lopes - Cantina Nutribem - 2 Million XOF

A hospital canteen, created with the intention to provide food accessibility through food of nutritional quality, based on natural and local products. The Nutribem Canteen will provide services to the patients of the National Hospital Simão Mendes.

2)     Iero Cande - Technical Centre of Information and Communications (CETIC) - 1.5 Million XOF

CETIC is a professional training centre created in 2018, with the objective of providing computer courses to youth and professionals in the Bafatá Region to reduce computer illiteracy levels and increase youth employment, entrepreneurship and self-employment.

3)     Jackline dos Reis - Ambiental Multicolor - 1 Million XOF

A Recycled cartridge company, providing services to public and private companies, schools and universities, which print documents daily in an ecological way.

The winners were announced earlier today via Rádio Jovem’s programe “Força Jovem” and they will now receive mentorship from our partners for a duration of three months, as well as keep a diary of their journey being part of this competition. The journey will later be shared in an event at the end of September, whereby all the applicants will be invited to attend, to support and encourage this space of entrepreneurship in Guinea-Bissau.