Teenage Kenyans finalists in MasterCard

Politics and policy

Customers queue for service at a Family Bank branch in Nairobi. Photo/FILE 

By Sandra Chao

Two Kenyans have been listed among the 12 finalists of this year’s young entrepreneurship competition Anzisha Prize.

Anzisha prize was started by the African Leadership Academy and The MasterCard Foundation four years ago to identify entrepreneurial skills for people aged between 15 and 22 years.

Eighteen year old Tom Osborn is the founder of Greenchar, a clean energy project that produces smokeless charcoal briquettes and distributes clean cook stoves.

Martha Chumo, 19, started the Nairobi Developer School that provides the youth with computer programming knowledge.

Ms Chumo, a self-taught programmer, opted out of studying medicine at the University of Nairobi and honed her skills at the iHub.

She sought capital through crowd funding to rent space to set up the school. After raising $21,000 (Sh1.9 million), Ms Chumo launched the school last July.

Mr Osborn’s venture sells cheaper and smokeless briquettes made from agricultural wastes like sugar bargasse and rice husks.

The two are battling it out with others from DRC, Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria and Togo for the $75,000 (Sh6.6 million) prize money to be awarded in South Africa next month.

“2014 has been an exciting one for the Anzisha Prize search team,” said Chi Achebe, Anzisha Prize programme manager in a press statement.