Ghanaian start-ups have been offered the opportunity to compete with their counterparts from three other countries on the continent in the maiden ‘The Next Titan Africa (TNT Africa)’ competition.
The US$120,000 cash prize business support competition is an entrepreneurial reality show designed to ignite the entrepreneurship spirit of young Africans and offer a platform to showcase their business ideas to the whole continent, build networks, and scale up to multinational status.
Selected entrepreneurs from Ghana would be competing with their counterparts from Malawi, Tanzania, and Nigeria in a maiden cohort of 20 finalists drawn from West, East and Southern Africa for the bragging rights as the champions of the first season and the grand cash prize.
Executive Producer of The Next Titan Africa, Mide Akinlaja, in his address at the press launch in Accra, emphasised that this season, one is searching for young African entrepreneurs who are business savvy with a blazing passion to demonstrate their entrepreneurial acumen with scalable business ideas, commercial insight and with the right attitude to fight in order to accomplish their dreams.
“TNT Africa gives an opportunity to the brightest entrepreneurial talents in Africa between the ages of 21 and 35 who have great and innovative business ideas to compete in real-life entrepreneurial challenges in a bid to ultimately win the grand prize to start their new business or to support their existing ones.
“TNT is about bringing the pains and gains of an entrepreneurial journey into the living rooms of Africans, giving viewers of the show undiluted entertainment and also a great opportunity for viewers to learn lessons directly through practical ways, as the contestants face different business tasks and challenges on a weekly basis,” he said.
The show, which is sponsored by Tingo Mobile, would hold regional auditions in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Nigeria, after which the top 50 will be shortlisted to engage in a one-week virtual boot camp in the four countries, which would eventually lead to 20 finalists who would make it to the Titan House in Lagos, where they would live together for 12 weeks facing different business tasks and will be gradually evicted until one winner and three runners-up emerge.
The contestants would live together and battle it out for 12 weeks, with different tasks on a weekly basis; and the winner would walk off with a grand prize of US$100,000, with three other runners-up getting US$10,000, US$6,000 and US$4,000, respectively.
Country Manager for Tingo – a leading Fintech conglomerate in Africa, Tobi Aloba, mentioned that his outfit is committed to innovation in the field of agriculture, education, Fintech, and advancing technology; therefore, start-ups are key considerations, hence, the decision to partner with the organisers of the competition to change the mindset of young Africans by awakening their entrepreneurial spirit.
“We are committed to solving problems on the continent with homegrown solutions and this is a sure way to identify the best business minds and support them with logistical assistance, informal training, and other requirements to propel them into becoming successful business personalities,” he said.
Registration has officially commenced for interested entrepreneurs between ages of 21 and 35 to go onto the website of the show and register for the audition and subsequent selection.
