Total Zimbabwe, the country’s market leader in fuel and petroleum products, last week awarded outstanding entrepreneurs as part of the 2018/19 Total Start Upper Challenge.
Sadam Mapundu, a Zvishavane-based entrepreneur walked away with US$17 500 for his Choto Virtual Energy project, a project which provides a cheap way for people who are not on the traditional power grid to charge their phones.
The second runner-up was Farai Musendo who walked away with $10 500 for his unique idea which converts waste plastic into diesel.
Speaking at Total Zimbabwe’s Start Upper of the year awards in Harare recently Total Zimbabwe’s Communications Officer Miss Anesu Mutasa said they received numerous entries from young entrepreneurs.
” We received over four hundred (400) entries ranging from financial, energy, educational, traffic solutions and social impact ideas from Zimbabwean youths,” she said.
Mutasa added that the entrants pitched their presentations to the panel which then made evaluations, so as to come up with the top three (3) projects.
She said “Total Zimbabwe Starter Upper of the Year Challenge 2018/19 is part of our group’s thrust to empower and promote local youths to participate meaningfully in mainstream economic activities and become agents for social change”.
Speaking at the same event Principal Director in the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Dr Benson Dube encouraged young people to take up youth loans which he said are lying idle .
With prize money of thirty-five thousand dollars ($35, 000), the Starter Upper Challenge is targeted at Zimbabweans, below thirty-five years (35) of age with the goal of identifying, rewarding and mentoring the best business ideas for a two-year period under the umbrella of Total Zimbabwe.
Led by a panel with some of Zimbabwe’s eminent business persons, industrialists, legal minds and development practitioners; the selection process involved selecting the top one hundred (100) projects from the initial four hundred (400) entries, and further shortlisting the top fifteen (15) projects.
The Total Start Upper Challenge is conducted in fifty-five (55) countries globally, including thirty-four (34) countries in Africa, Zimbabwe included, and another twenty-one (21) in Europe, Asia Middle East and North and South America.
