Demo Africa the flagship initiatives of LIONS@frica that aims to connect African startups to the global ecosystem today released the list of its final 30 startups that will launch at this year’s DEMO Africa conference in Johannesburg.

The finalists were picked from a record 723 technology startups from 27 African countries that applied to launch at the event. Out of the 30, South Africa is represented by 11 startups, Nigeria 6, Kenya 5 and Ghana 3. For the first time Morocco will have a representative in the continental faire. Other countries include Egypt, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda.

Here are the Nigerian companies courtesy of Techpoint.

• ArtNigeria: An e-commerce platform for sales of artworks – originals, prints, photography, sculptures. The Artists are mainly Nigerians.
• Rubiqube Limited: RubiQube is a mobile platform that gives users unlimited access to a variety of locally developed innovative apps. RubiQube is a product of MOBIQUBE NIG. LTD
• SharpHire Global Limited: SharpHire is a company behind some of Africa’s most innovative Internet Start-ups like PushCV and Piggybank. The company builds products that solve real problems that makes life easier, focusing on the labour market.
• WESABI: An on demand platform that connects you to verified and highly skilled artisans.
• Shuttlers: Shuttlers is a multi-staff bus company set up to assist professionals in the Lagos metropolis and its environs to resolve the daily challenge of commuting to work – such as driving stress, hustling for buses, queuing for fuel, long waits for BRTs, and so on.

The healthymagination Mother and Child Programme — launched in March 2016 by GE and Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship  to address maternal and child mortality by supporting African social entrepreneurs operating in the health sector — has taken the first big step toward achieving its objective: selecting the first group of social enterprises that will receive training and mentoring.

After a rigorous evaluation process, 17 social entrepreneurs from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia were selected to be in the programme’s first cohort and are currently attending a three-day, in-person workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. This kick-off event packs core business lessons into a powerful three-day event facilitated by senior-level Miller Center mentors and GE business leaders. It is designed to help the social entrepreneurs acquire business fundamentals, improve their strategic thought processes, and articulate a business plan that demonstrates impact, growth and long-term financial sustainability.

This training and mentoring that blends Silicon Valley entrepreneurial principles with venture impact investing utilizes Miller Center’s Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI®) methodology, which has been proven and refined through 12 years of working with more than 570 social enterprises worldwide. Participants will also be introduced to GE’s portfolio of products; hence they will gain specialized support and training on technologies and resources for the maternal and child health sector.

In alphabetical order, here are the social enterprises selected for the healthymagination Mother & Child programme—along with the countries in which they operate and the social entrepreneurs leading them: Access Afya (Kenya; Dr. Daphne Ngunjiri); ayzh, (Kenya; Habib Anwar and Zubaida Bai); Health-E-Net (Kenya; Pratap Kumar); Hewa Tele (Kenya; Steve Alred Adudans); LifeNet International (Uganda, Burundi and DRC; Stefanie Weiland); Live Well Social Enterprise Business (Zambia; Charles Kalonga); Lwala Community Alliance (Kenya; Julius Mbeya and Ash Lauren Rogers); Nurture Africa (Uganda; Brian Iredale); Outreach Medical Services (Nigeria; Dr. Segun Ebitanmi); Peach Health (Ghana; Cobby Amoah); PurpleSource Healthcare (Nigeria; Olufemi Sunmonu); SaferMom (Nigeria; Adeloye Olanrewaju); Telemed Medical Services (Ethiopia; Yohans Emiru); The Shanti Uganda Society (Uganda; Natalie Angell-Besseling); Tulivu Imaging (Kenya; Matthew Rehrig); and Village Hopecore International (Kenya; Anne Gildea).

Novare Africa Property Fund II, the fund with a mandate to invest in retail and commercial real estate in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa, has announced its final close at the end of June 2016.

The fund, which will be listed on the Mauritius Stock Exchange at the end of July 2016, has raised $350 million (R5.25 billion) for investment in a portfolio of new developments in, amongst others, Nigeria, Zambia and Mozambique. It is managed by Novare Fund Manager in Mauritius, while Novare Equity Partners provides a sub-advisory role, being tasked with sourcing potential new development opportunities.

Derrick Roper, chief executive of Novare Equity Partners, said that while uncertainty and volatility had clouded the investment outlook for the continent, Novare’s Africa Property Fund will benefit in the longer term from positive demographics, urbanization and growing personal incomes.

These are the leading competitions for African entrepreneurs:

• Anzisha Prize
• IsDB Business Plan Competition for Sub-Saharan Countries. .
• Development Innovation Ventures
• BID Network
•  Argidius-ANDE Finance Challenge (AAFC)
• Business Plan Competitions (BPC)
•  African Diaspora Marketplace .
• The African Innovation Prize,
• Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards
• Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA)
•  African News Innovation Challenge (ANIC)
•  Africa Awards for Entrepreneurs,
• The Saville Foundation Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education
•  MENA 100 Business Plan Competition
• The Zayed Future Energy Prize
• Seed Engine
• DEMO Africa
• African Achievers Awards
• The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA)
• The Dell Social Innovation Challenge
• INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future
• Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Program
• VC4Africa Programs
• Powering Agriculture
• Securing Water for Food
• Feed the Future
• World Food Prize
• World Agriculture Prize

[Source: Afterschool]

This one is better arranged.

With Emphasis on Women Entrepreneurs

1. BMCE Bank of Africa – African Entrepreneurship Award – USD$1 Million for Women (and Men) Entrepreneurs
2. She Leads Africa .
3. Ashden International Award

Student Entrepreneurship

1. The Cola-Cola Africa Foundation Entrepreneurship programs
2. Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Fellowship for South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland Students
3. The School Enterprise Challenge
4. The Skoll Scholarships in Social Entrepreneurship for International Students, UK
5. Google Hash Code Programming Competition for Students and Professionals in Africa, Europe & Middle East
6. How will you change the world with US$1 million? Apply for 2015 Hult Prize – Social Enterprise Challenge.
7. The Google RISE Awards

Aspiring and Startup Entrepreneurs

1. Total created theStartupper of the year challenge.
2. Seedstars World
3. Diamond Bank’s BET – Building Entrepreneurs Today
4. Shell LiveWIRE .
5. Ashoka Africa
6.  Rolex Award for Enterprise
7. The Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition
8. The N10 billion Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme
9. The SOCAP Scholarship for Social Entrepreneurs
10. The Saville Foundation Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education

Breakthrough Entrepreneurs & Small Businesses

1. The Facebook Internet.org Innovation Challenge in Africa
2. The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

Successful Entrepreneurs and Business leaders

1. The African Leadership Network celebrates entrepreneurs by hosting the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurs
2. African Leadership Network – ALN has hosted the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (AAE), dubbed the ‘Oscars of Entrepreneurship in Africa’

[Source: Afterschool]

• Acumen Foundation http://acumen.org/

• African Entrepreneurship Award https://africanentrepreneurshipaward.com

• Bestseller Foundation bestsellerfoundation.com

• Lundin Foundation http://www.lundinfoundation.org/s/home.asp

• Mentor Capital Network http://www.williamjamesfoundation.org/

• The Mulago Foundation www.mulagofoundation.org/
• Seed Award – promoting entrepreneurship for sustainable development https://www.seed.uno/

• SIDA – Innovations against Poverty http://www.sida.se/English/partners/resources-for-all-partners/Challenge-Funds/Innovations-Against-Poverty/

[Source ]

Welcome to he new Nigeria where government is regulating everything including how banks could run their businesses.

Customers are free to open accounts without deposits, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.

The directive is contained in the Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade and Exchange Guidelines for Fiscal Years 2016/2017 guidelines posted by the CBN on its website.

Commercial banks ask for cash deposits to cover operating cost of opening new accounts to discourage customers from abandoning their account opening plans after completing documentations.

The initial deposits are usually around N1,000 or N5,000 for savings accounts and N10,000 and above for corporate accounts.

The CBN said the new policy directive is in line with its commitment to encourage banks to improve their deposit mobilisation efforts while promoting the financial inclusion initiative.

If only CBN knows that opening zero balance accounts could be costly to banks as their staff have to be paid.