Ghanaian company AgroCenta has won the Young Entrepreneurs Competition at the World Export Development Forum in Budapest, Hungary, beating off competition from Hungarian and Zimbabwean enterprises to take the grand prize of €5,000. The
World Export Development Forum 2017 (WEDF) is organized by the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade between 24 and 26 October.
AgroCenta’s co-founder, Michael Ocansey, won the panel of judges over with his pitch for the company’s online platform, which enables farmers to use their phones first to market their products online and then to access trucking services to get their products to buyers.
Receiving the award on behalf of AgroCenta, Ocansey, who is the company’s chief technology officer, said: ‘This pitching event has been a tough experience, especially since all four companies were pitching similar ideas. This meant I had to work extra hard to be more articulated, but simple enough to still sell AgroCenta well. Even if we hadn’t won, the opportunity ITC gave us to pitch on such a world stage is in itself enormous.’
During a session at WEDF, finalists in the Young Entrepreneurs Competition – all aiming to improve business opportunities for farmers through disintermediation and market intelligence – presented their pitches to a jury of impact investors and CEOs. In addition to AgroCenta, the competing companies were Agrk Group (Zimbabwe), Refresh (Hungary), and Supp.li (Hungary).
The jury – composed of Ms. Anna Guenther, Founder, PledgeMeNew Zealand; Mr. Alberto Constans, Vice President, Opportunity Network Spain; and Mr. Adrame Ndione, Partner, Ebano Finance France – assessed the four companies based on their value proposition, social impact, market potential, team strength, and financial model.
The pitching competition was organized by International Trade Centre’s Youth and Trade Programme Impact Hub’s Accelerate 2030 Programme identified the two African finalists, and Budapest-based Design Terminal the two Hungarian finalists, following a competitive process. All four finalists will benefit from free mentorship from ITC and its partners to improve their products, services, and business models.
