Great Entrepreneur
HE John Marshall launched Great Entrepreneur, a joint initiative of the British Embassy and the British Council, sponsored by NESCAFE.
GREAT ENTREPRENEUR is a reality show that gives young people the opportunity to demonstrate that they could be great entrepreneurs and have the chance to win financial support and professional advice to help them put their ideas into practice. It is a competition in which 18 entrepreneurs will be vying for the prize on TV and the public will vote for their favourites. Three projects will be selected on the basis of a bid and in accordance with established criteria.
The winners will share a jackpot of CFA20 million according to the relevance of their projects.
The objectives of GREAT ENTREPRENEUR are as follows:
- To foster entrepreneurship among young people through the implementation of projects combining entrepreneurship and useful from a social viewpoint
- To showcase and reward innovative projects with strong growth and employment prospects
- To sensitize the general public about business creation
- To value the role of accompaniment and mentoring in the business creation process
The British Embassy is involved because they want to encourage entrepreneurs and to highlight the importance of creating an environment in which they can prosper.
The Ambassador at the launch of the project said: “Every country, rich or poor, needs entrepreneurs. People who think for themselves, creative people bursting with energy and ideas. The type of people who don’t ask “What can you do for me” but go out to get it for themselves.
These are the people who see markets, who establish companies and who create jobs. They create wealth. They create opportunities. They deliver growth.
Our economies need these dynamic, resourceful people. And they exist everywhere, especially in developing countries where the hunger to succeed is often at its most acute but they need three things to succeed:
-
A good business environment. One that is open, competitive, and free of red tape. Corruption and bureaucracy strangle and suffocate entrepreneurship;
-
Access to finance. They need a banking sector that is flexible, innovative and prepared to take a reasonable level of risk;
-
And they need a society that is forward-looking, hard-working, that encourages creativity and that celebrates, and learns from, business success.