Chernet Getaye from Alagae TVET won the annual Bright Future in Agriculture (BFA) Entrepreneurship award for his business pitch, “Spray Service Providing,” during the BFA National Pitching Event Thursday, July 15.
Getaye’s business would send trained professionals to apply pesticides to farmer’s crops instead of having the farmers do so themselves, as they often have little knowledge on proper application. Second place was awarded to Mohammed Jibril from Kombolocha TVET for his business “Biftu Gudina Milk Collection and Processing Unit,” and in third place was Bedilu Ketema from Alagae ATVET for his business “Hybrid Vegetable Seedling, Rising, and Marketing.”
The BFA Entrepreneurship award, organized in partnership with the Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC), is given to three full-time TVET students for their business pitches. The award focuses on businesses within the horticulture and dairy market.
The BFA hopes to inspire young Ethiopian businesspeople to pursue agriculture and entrepreneurship, according to Project Director Dr. Huube Mudde. The majority of the labor force works in agriculture, Mudde added, which is why the BFA chooses to encourage young entrepreneurs to innovate within this industry.
Students apply for this award first at the college level. Two business ideas per college are selected and the semi-finalists then participate in a training session by the EDC. Six of those students are selected for the BFA National Pitching Event.
At the National Pitching Event, each student will give a ten minute presentation in English, Amharic, or Oromo, explaining their business idea and answering questions from the jury. The pitch is evaluated on the students’ ability to solve a compelling problem with their business, their value proposition and competitive advantage, market target and size, revenue model, investment fund, and the clarity and persuasiveness of their pitch.
The BFA was founded with support from both the Ethiopian and Dutch governments. It has partners in the Netherlands, Ethiopia, and South Africa, among other nations.
Agricultural innovators receive recognition at BFAs
President Sahle-Work encourages Ethiopian Team heading for Tokyo Olympics
President Sahle-Work Zewde have encouraged the national team for Tokyo Olympic to aspire big success in all games ahead.
The patron of the Ethiopian Olympic team, President Sahle-Work Zewde has urged the athletes to raise the flag of their country at the global sports arena through coordinated endeavors.
Saying that Tokyo is a city where the legendary Ethiopian athlete Abebe Bikila registered a victory, she encouraged the team to maintain such a spirit of triumph and repeat a history.
Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the event was postponed in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will not allow international spectators. Despite being rescheduled for 2021, to be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021, the event retains the Tokyo 2020 name for marketing and branding purposes. This is the first time that the Olympic Games have been postponed and rescheduled, rather than cancelled. The Summer Paralympics will be held between 24 August and 5 September 2021 after the Olympics.
The Tokyo 2020 Games will see the introduction of new competitions including 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and madison cycling, as well as further mixed events. Under new International Olympic Committee policies, which allow the host organizing committee to add new sports to the Olympic program to augment the permanent core events, these Games will see karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding make their Olympic debuts, as well as the return of baseball and softball for the first time since 2008.
Kenenisa Bekele will not compete at the Tokyo Olympics
Kenesia Bekele will not be racing at the Tokyo Olympics, it has been confirmed. The second-fastest marathon runner in history, who finished the 2019 Berlin Marathon in 2:01:41, missing Eliud Kipchoge’s record by two seconds, did not take part in the Ethiopian Marathon Trials in May.
After the trials, the Ethiopian Olympic Committee, which has been at odds with the Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) in recent years, assured fans Bekele would still be in the team.
However, in a joint statement from the Ethiopian Olympic Committee and the EAF on Thursday, it was confirmed that Bekele was not on the team. Instead, the four men’s marathon runners are the top finishers from the trials race: Shura Kitata, Lelisa Desisa, Sisay Lemma and Chalu Deso (as the alternate).
Bekele complained about the EAF’s selection criteria before back in 2016, he was left off the Olympic marathon team despite saying he was healthy and ‘ready for the challenge’. He told Reuters at the time how he was ‘deeply disappointed’ not to be going to Rio and claimed that some of those in charge of selection didn’t know the sport well enough.
‘The federation set criteria they knew very well would rule me out. I finished third in the London Marathon, when I was far from 100 percent fit. I’d done my preparation in full. Everyone knows that London is the toughest marathon except the people from the federation. There are groups there that know nothing about athletics.’
Bekele has not completed another full marathon since his Berlin Marathon win in 2019. He was due to compete in the 2020 London Marathon but pulled out, citing a calf injury.
As he will be 42 by the time of the next Olympics, in 2024, failing to be selected for Tokyo will mean Bekele’s ultimate sporting ambition to become the first person to win gold on the track and marathon in the professional era will slip further out of reach.
Amen Nigusie
Name: Amen Nigusie
Education: MA in Accounting
Company name: Eva Chinese Restaurant
Title: Owner
Founded in: 2020
What it does: Serves Chinese food
HQ: Addis Ababa
Number of employees: 10
Startup Capital: 270,000 birr
Current capital: Growing
Reasons for starting the business: To own a business related with my passion
Biggest perk of ownership: Doing business by your own terms
Biggest strength: Working hard
Biggest challenging: Capital
Plan: To expand and open other branches
First career: Accountant
Most interested in meeting: Mihiret Debebe
Most admired person: Mihiret Debebe
Stress reducer: Praying
Favorite past time: Chilling with friends
Favorite book: The secret of life
Favorite destination: China
Favorite automobile: Lamborghini
