Announcing: The Ye! Global Award Winners

The Global Inclusion Awards 2017, a Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) initiative in cooperation with Ye!, recognises and honours budding young entrepreneurs across four categories, ages 16-30 who strive to achieve greatness and demonstrate innovation acros a multitude of sectors including: finance, tech, agriculture, social empowerment, and livelihoods education.

The 6th Global Inclusion Awards Ceremony was held on the 3rd of May 2017 in Berlin, Germany. The event was organized by Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI) and the German G20 Presidency/German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Ye! Global Awards Winners received their awards on stage in front of a prestigious audience of international stakeholders, investors, and entrepreneurs. Finalists were invited to attend a training on International Trade from ICT as well as offer their suggestions during a roundtable discussion on the 'Bankability of Youth.' To check out all the photos head over to the Ye! Facebook page.

And the winners are...

• Ye! Superstar Award (Enterprises with annual turnover of more than $500,000)

Entrepreneur: Momar Mass Taal

Country: The Gambia

Business: Tropingo Foods

The Ye! Superstar Award was presented to Momarr Mass Taal, Founder of Tropingo Foods: a Gambian agro-processing company focused on mango and groundnut processing and export. Tropingo Foods is one of the largest privately owned groundnut exporters in The Gambia, with a mission to establish Gambia as a regional hub for supplying the world with quality mango and groundnut products. Tropingo Foods exports to Asia and Europe. Momar is currently working to build a food dehydration processing facility in Gambia. Momar Taal has over 140 employees, 120 of which are women. With annual revenue of $1.6 million in 2015, Tropingo Foods has been recognized both locally and internationally for its sustainable practices, scalable business model and social impact on rural communities.

• Ye! Rising Star Award (Enterprises with annual turnover of $500,000 or less)

Entrepreneur: Mabel Suglo

Country: Ghana

Business: Eco Shoes

The prestigious Ye! Rising Star Award was presented to Ghanaian social entrepreneur Mabel Suglo, who is passionate about alleviating poverty and designing beautiful shoes. Eco-Shoesis an initiative that helps artisans with disabilities learn to craft shoes from used used tires,recycled cloth, and other discarded materials usually struin across the Ghanain landscape. The Eco Shoes venture began in 2013, and has now supplied 10,000 pairs of shoes to school children through a cooperative effort with Environmental Empowerment Initiative. There are millions of discarded car tire stockpiles and waste materials in Ghana which pose an environmental and health hazard. Eco-Shoes saw an opportunity where others saw trash. Eco Shoes takes these environmental hazards and turns them into fashionable and comfortable shoes.

To learn more check out their website www.ecoshoesgh.com

• Ye! Female Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur: Amira Cheniour

Country: Tunisia

Business: I.T.Grapes

The Ye! Star – Female Entrepreneur Award was presented to Amira Cheniour from Tunisia. She is the CEO and co-founder of I.T. Grapes; a company providing sustainable IT solutions for rural farmers in Tunisia. I.T.Grapes has developed an  e-monitoring and smart automation system to monitor crops and water usage called Seabex.  The Seabex system aims to help farmers make better use of the available resources (specifically water and energy) to produce greater harvest quantities and quality while also reducing waste and cost. I.T.Grapes mission is to make connected devices smarter and more autonomous to improve systems efficiency and help save resources. Amira Cheniour and her team are currently working on a number of large-scale projects with the Tunisian government.

To learn more about this enterprise check out their website www.itgrapes.com

• Ye! Rural Impact Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur: Fredrick Matress

Country: Malawi

Business: Honey Products Industries

Fredrick Matress, the founder of Honey Products Industries, is a Malawian social entrepreneur with a passion for agribusiness. He received special recognition in the category Ye! Star – Rural Impact for promoting sustainable beekeeping practices and strengthening the market power of once dormant beekeepers. By observing that local beekeepers were unable to scale their businesses, Honey Products Industries sought to provide a sustainable source of employment through beekeeping. By training and providing the resources for local youths to franchise honey products while supplying already established beekeepers with higher prices for their products, Honey Products Industries is contributing to alleviating poverty in Malawi. Honey Products Industries focuses on producing triple bottom line social, economic and environmental impact in communities where it has a presence.

With seven full time employees, 20 Mini Franchisee and through working with more than 2,500 beekeepers, the company is able to offer beekeeping extension services. This enterprise also sells Modern beekeeping equipment to local smallholder farmers who are interested in entering the honey market. Fredrick Matress franchising model coupled with his employment of youth and dormant beekeepers exemplified the far reaching social impact of this agricultural enterprise.

To see all the photos go here.