Young entrepreneurs developing ICTs for agriculture are invited to apply for the annual Pitch AgriHack competition, which provides capacity building and funding to accelerate youth employment and agricultural transformation.
Now in its fourth year, Pitch AgriHack is an initiative by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU) aimed at advancing food security, resilience and inclusive economic growth.
Up to EUR15,000 (US$17,000) will be awarded to seven startups in different categories, including three new special prize categories – data analytics services, public choice and the Greentec Prize.
In addition to cash prizes, finalists of the competition benefit from a financial management and investment readiness bootcamp, grants and access to investments, capacity building and promotional opportunities. Selected finalists will pitch their innovations to ICT4Ag and business experts at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Accra, Ghana in September.
“We are proud that Pitch AgriHack has become such an important part of the AGRF. More importantly we are proud to see how so many of our alumni have grown. Since the inception of the AgriHack talent initiative we have worked with more than 1,000 young digital innovators with around 100 entering the final stages of the competition. Many have gone on to win additional funding close to EUR2 million (US$2.2 million) from various players and created jobs,” said senior programme coordination for ICT4Ag Ken Lohento.
Interested parties are encouraged to apply by the closing date of May 24.
